‘I'll call you right back’: Trump witness takes cellphone call from dad while on the stand
A Palm Beach realtor came up with a novel reason to get off the phone with his father on Tuesday, according to reporters.
“Dad, I love you, but I’ve got to get off the phone,” Lawrence Moens reportedly said in the witness box of Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial.
Moens explained he was testifying for Trump and promised, "I’ll call you right back."
Moens — a self-described high school dropout who quoted Thomas Jefferson in the witness box and reportedly boasted he could sell Mar-a-Lago to Elon Musk for $1 billion — stunned reporters in the New York City courtroom Tuesday when he answered his ringing cellphone.
“Me and a couple other reporters are beside ourselves when Moens’ phone rings and he answers on the witness stand,” wrote Law360’s Stewart Bishop. “That would be a cardinal sin in many courtrooms.”
But Judge Arthur Engoron reportedly brushed it off and accepted Moen’s apology, according to multiple reports.
“Justice Engoron is pretty chill, as far as judges go,” said Courthouse News reporter Erik Uebelacker. “Court Others would have lost it at that.”
Trump’s attorneys called Moens to testify as an expert on the value of the former president’s real estate holdings. Moens reportedly told the courtroom, "I worked very hard to sell rich people properties in Palm Beach."
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But after a voir dire from State attorney Kevin Wallace, his testimony was limited to residential property in Palm Beach, according to reports.
New York Attorney General Letitia James has accused Trump of inflating the value of properties, such as social club Mar-a-Lago, to defraud investors and lenders.
While Trump denies wrongdoing, Engoron found him liable before the trial began.