Arthur Engoron

The bench trial in New York State Attorney General Letitia James' civil fraud case against former President Donald Trump got underway on Monday – and the tactics on show were predictable, according to a report.

James alleges that the Trump Organization seriously exaggerated the value of its real estate assets, and Engoron agreed with her in a late September ruling. Now, with the trial underway, it's a question of what types of sanctions and penalties Trump's company will face.

A former top executive for the Trump Organization testified that the company's longtime chief financial officer directed him to help commit tax fraud.

Jeffrey McConney, the company controller and chief lieutenant to former chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, took the stand Friday in a second day of testimony in the fraud trial of Donald Trump and was grilled by prosecutors from Attorney General Letitia James' office, reported NBC News.

Lawyers for Donald Trump asked Friday to have his Manhattan civil fraud trial paused while they fight a court ruling that would dissolve the companies that control some of his most valuable assets, the Associated Press reported.

Judge Arthur Engoron “clearly does not comprehend the scope of the chaos (his) decision has wrought,” Trump's lawyers wrote in a motion filed with the appeals court.

Donald Trump has dropped a last-resort lawsuit against the judge overseeing his New York fraud trial.

The former president's attorneys withdrew their lawsuit against Justice Arthur Engoron, which had been seen as a long-shot attempt to stop his real estate empire from being dismantled after he found that Trump and his adult sons had filed fraudulent financial statements, reported The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump has been raging against the New York judge who will decide his financial fate, but his attorneys botched a crucial deadline that could have put the case in a jury's hands.

The former president has raged about not getting a jury trial while launching regular tirades against "Democrat judge" Arthur Engoron, who has already ruled that Trump and his two adult sons have committed fraud.

Florida Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D) sent a letter to the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser on Thursday asking that they reexamine Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate to see if the value of the property is as much as Trump has claimed it is. The former president's valuation of his real estate empire is currently at the center of a fraud trial.

If it turns out Trump is correct and the property is worth over $1 billion then he owes a lot more in property taxes, the congressman argues.

Donald Trump's continuous attacks on the judge overseeing his New York fraud trial are part of a desperate ploy to escape accountability, according to a report.

It's hardly surprising that he has publicly insulted state attorney general Letitia James, who has hit him with a $250 million civil fraud lawsuit, but his attacks on Justice Arthur Engoron, who holds his financial fate in his hands, make less sense, according to New York Times columnist Peter Coy.

Donald Trump continued his assault on Judge Arthur Engoron and Attorney General Letitia James in his social media posts Thursday – though he stopped short of crossing the line set by a gag order imposed on him Tuesday which protected only the judge's staff.

But, according to one former Trump staffer, even that gag order can't stop him.

Former President Donald Trump's middle son, Eric Trump, raged about how offensive he found the smell of the New York courtroom where their civil trial for fraud is being conducted, Newsweek reported on Thursday.

"The courthouse I was in today, it's disgusting. It smells. You had cables running across all the walls. It's a disgrace and the fact that that's a representation of our legal system," he said. "You see the same thing at airports. I mean, how many times do you fly through an airport and you see acoustical airport tiles that are falling down, right?"

Former President Donald Trump, who faces the prospect of having his businesses in New York dissolved, sent out a frantic early morning post on Truth Social in which he called for outside help to bail him out.

Trump began his post with a rehash of other rants that he has made in the past about New York Attorney General Letitia James and Judge Arthur Engoron.