Trump civil fraud case: Judge fines Trump $354M, says frauds 'shock the conscience'

Former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney, a defendant in the case, is scheduled to return to the witness stand this morning for a half-day session of court.

State attorneys are expected to continue to probe the Trump Organization's internal procedures that resulted in the inflated values on Trump's financial statements, including how the former president's own Trump Tower penthouse grew in listed value from $80 million in 2011 to $327 million in 2016.

Judge Arthur Engoron already ruled last week that Trump overvalued the apartment by over $200 million based on the "false and misleading" claim that the residence was 30,000 square feet, rather than its actual size of 10,996 square feet.

When McConney asked Kathy Kaye, a Trump International Realty executive, for assistance valuing the residence in 2013, Kaye cited the penthouse's ties to "celebrity" and its uniqueness as partial reasons to add $20 million to the apartment's listed value, according to an email that was entered into evidence.

"I don't see how one would list below 8K per sq foot at this point, which brings us to 240,000M ... 200,000M is a safe estimate," Kaye wrote in the email.

McConney also appeared to struggled to explain why he used asking prices, rather than the accepted practice of using sale prices, when valuing the penthouse.

The exchange prompted New York AG special counsel Andrew Amer to confront McConney with his testimony during a previous investigative interview, in which McConney said asking prices were a poor measure of value since "you can ask anything you want to."

Testifying about his responsibilities as the Trump Organization's longtime controller, co-defendant Jeffrey McConney was grilled on the stand by special counsel Andrew Amer of the New York attorney general's office.

Amer pressed McConney about alleged issues with Trump's financial documents.

Asked about why he listed assets from Vornado Trust -- which Trump did not control -- as being under Trump's control, McConney suggested it came down to accounting convenience.

"We couldn't keep adding columns for every bank or brokerage account," McConney said, later adding that the money was held in a Capital One account like the other assets, even if Trump could not access that account.

McConney testified that the individuals who accessed the spreadsheet would understand who controlled that money.

"People can make assumptions in any way they want to. The users looking at this spreadsheet would know it's not one bank account," McConney said.

McConney appeared to struggle to answer questions about the value of Trump's triplex apartment in Trump Tower, which, according to the Trump Organization, ballooned in value from $80 million in 2011 to $327 million in 2016.

The controller testified that he relied on data from the StreetEasy website, adopted cost-per-square-foot estimates from newer properties, and took other Trump Organization executives' claims about the apartment at face value.

McConney is scheduled to continue his testimony tomorrow as the day's only witness.

Donald Trump's legal team plans to request a stay of the ongoing fraud trial, pending their appeal of Judge Engoron's partial summary judgment ruling issued last week, defense lawyer Chris Kise notified Engoron in court.

In seeking to halt the trial, the defense team said they plan to file their request tomorrow morning and wanted to provide notice to the state.

State attorneys objected that less than 24 hours' notice is not enough.

"That's clearly not sufficient," Engoron said of the notice, adding that the appellate court could deny the request due to the lack of proper notice.

A marked-up version of the Trump Organization's 2014 statement of financial condition suggests that Trump himself issued final approval for the statements, according to the document, which was entered into evidence today.

The document included a handwritten note from longtime Trump Organization Controller Jeffrey McConney saying "DJT TO GET FINAL REVIEW."

The document also included a list showing the 2013 value of Trump's properties, which McConney had crossed out to adjust to the 2014 values.

Testifying on the stand, McConney -- who joined the Trump Organization in 1987 and was responsible for Trump's financial statements between 2011 and 2017 -- testified that he worked in conjunction with accounting firm Mazars USA and Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg to issue the statements.

While McConney acknowledged that he wrote the note on the document, he could not provide specifics about the extent of Trump's involvement.