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

Ex-Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg is expected to face questions this morning about his work valuing properties like Trump's triplex apartment in Trump Tower and Trump's 40 Wall Street building, as well as the Trump Organization's efforts to secure loans from banks and Weisselberg's direct conversations with the former president.

Weisselberg is the second named defendant to testify in the ongoing civil trial.

Trump Organization controller and co-defendant Jeffrey McConney, who concluded his testimony on Friday, was deemed a hostile witness by Judge Arthur Engoron, giving the state more latitude in their questions.

Ex-Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg's expected testimony this morning comes six months after he was released from New York City's Rikers Island jail complex after pleading guilty last year to 15 felony charges related to a long-running scheme to avoid $1.7 million in taxes while working for the Trump Organization.

As a condition of his plea deal, Weisselberg testified last year in the Manhattan district attorney's criminal trial of the Trump Organization itself.

"Are you embarrassed about what you did?" Trump Organization attorney Alan Futerfas asked Weisselberg during the criminal trial last November.

"More than you can imagine," replied Weisselberg, who testified that Trump himself was unaware of his tax evasion scheme.

The Trump Organization was convicted and later paid a $1.6 million fine imposed by the judge overseeing the case.

Former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg is expected to testify when former President Donald Trump's civil fraud resumes this morning.

A named defendant in the case alongside Trump and his adult sons, Weisselberg allegedly supervised and approved the inflated valuations in Trump's financial statements at the center of the state's case, according to state attorneys.

He's also alleged to have personally met with the former president each year between 2011 and 2016 to review and get approval for the fraudulent financial statements.

"Mr. Trump made known through Mr. Weisselberg that he wanted his net worth on the Statements to increase -- a desire Mr. Weisselberg and others carried out year after year in their fraudulent preparation of the Statements," New York Attorney General Letitia James wrote in her initial complaint.

A New York appellate judge declined to pause Donald Trump's ongoing civil fraud trial, after attorneys for Trump sought a stay of the trial while they appeal Judge Arthur Engoron's summary judgment ruling last week that decided the core of the case.

Judge Peter Moulton issued the ruling minutes after hearing oral arguments from both sides. While he did not pause the trial, he did stop the immediate cancelation of Trump's business certificates that Engoron had ordered last week.

"This is everything owned or controlled by the defendant. Once you dissolve you dissolve," defense attorney Christopher Kise argued in an afternoon hearing convened at the Appellate Division's First Department. "It's chaos. It's chaos right now."

The New York attorney general's office balked at halting the trial.

"There's just absolutely no basis for an interim stay of trial that's already been going on for a week," said Deputy Solicitor General Judy Vale. "It has been an enormous endeavor to get this off the ground."

Trump's defense insisted a pause was warranted given the magnitude of the potential consequences for Trump's business.

"We're not seeking delay. We're seeking a fair trial," Kise said before the judge ruled that the trial would continue.

The trial is scheduled to resume Tuesday morning.