Shouting match erupts as fraud trial prosecutor loses temper: ‘Trump committed fraud!’
A screaming match erupted in Donald Trump’s $250 million civil fraud trial Friday when a New York state attorney ran out of patience with the former president’s legal team, according to a new report.
"The court has found that Mr. Trump committed fraud," shouted Kevin Wallace, according to ABC News. "To get into the private wealth group, he committed fraud."
Wallace lost his temper with Trump attorney Chris Kise over a lengthy objection made during the cross-examination of an expert defense witness about Trump's relationship with Deutsche Bank, according to the report.
Kise, drawing on testimony from witness Robert Unell, argued Trump’s favorable loan terms were part and parcel of his rank as a private wealth management client, or a wealthy whale the bank had successfully harpooned, according to the report.
Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Unell out of the courtroom so the two testy lawyers could battle it out, according to the report.
"Once you are in the private bank, you are in this sort of rarified air,” Kise reportedly argued. “It is a flawed premise to say you have to compare it to the outside air.”
Wallace snapped back that Trump gained access to that “rarified air” by committing fraud, as Engoron ruled in a summary judgement before the trial began, according to ABC News.
"He lied to the private wealth group to get these loans,” Wallace said. “Therefore, we are looking at what the interest rate would have been had he not had access to the group he lied to."
Engoron, according to the report, overruled Kise’s objection and agreed.
"I think,” Engoron said, “his explanation is correct.”