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

New York Attorney General Letitia James is attending the afternoon session of Donald Trump's civil fraud trial.

Sitting in the gallery with her staff, James briefly walked into Judge Engoron's chambers before the trial resumed following the midday break.

Trump's legal spokesperson, Alina Habba, was also spotted entering the judge's chambers for a separate meeting.

Court then resumed with defense attorneys conducting their redirect examination of accounting expert Eli Bartov.

Bartov is expected to be the defense's last witness before they rest their case, which will likely be followed by a brief rebuttal case by the state.

In an effort to discredit the defense's accounting expert, state attorney Louis Solomon highlighted that Eli Bartov's testimony was rejected by a judge when he testified as an expert for the New York attorney general in her trial against Exxon Mobil in 2019.

The judge in that case wrote in his ruling that Bartov's testimony during that trial was "unpersuasive" and was "flatly contradicted by the weight of the evidence," according to Solomon's reading of the ruling in court.

Bartov said he was unaware of the ruling, and defense attorney Chris Kise objected to the line of questioning as irrelevant.

Bartov largely stuck to his initial testimony during two hours of cross-examination this morning, defending his overall finding while acknowledging his analysis found that Trump's statements included some marginal overstatements that "did not impact significantly Deutsche Bank's decision to extend loans."

While Bartov agreed that, in the real estate business, "price gets set first, then valuation follows" he said he saw no evidence to support the attorney general's allegation that Trump's statements were reverse engineered to provide support for the values determined by Trump and his executives.

"Do you know if they were reverse engineered?" Solomon asked.

"I have no knowledge of that," Bartov responded.

Present in the courtroom for Bartov's testimony was Eric Trump, who made a surprise appearance in the gallery. Like his father, Eric Trump initially planned to take the stand during the defense's case, but canceled his testimony.

In a social media post this morning, Donald Trump claimed he "wanted to testify on Monday" but blamed his decision not to testify on the trial's limited gag order, which prohibits Trump from commenting on Judge Engoron's staff.

When Trump on Sunday pulled out of his testimony, he touted the strength of his evidence and previous testimony as the reasons he decided not to take the stand.

"Anyway, the Judge, Arthur Engoron, put a GAG ORDER on me, even when I testify, totally taking away my constitutional right to defend myself. We are appealing, but how would you like to be a witness and not be allowed free snd [sic] honest speech," Trump wrote today.

In a statement to ABC News on Monday, Trump attorney Chris Kise also partially blamed the limited gag order for his client's decision not to testify.

"There is really nothing more to say to a Judge who has imposed an unconstitutional gag order and thus far appears to have ignored President Trump's testimony and that of everyone else involved in the complex financial transactions at issue in the case," Kise said.

In a court filing last week, Engoron's attorney wrote that the limited gag order "does not prevent statements about Justice Engoron himself, not the Attorney General or her staff, not the substance of the claims and allegations against petitioners, not the facts or evidence or witness testimony, not the judicial process, nor any other topic concerning the underlying action."

-Peter Charalambous and Soo Rin Kim

Judge Arthur Engoron will allow the New York attorney general to call two witnesses during the state's rebuttal case once the defense rests its case -- over the objection of Trump attorney Chris Kise.

"The government has held these witnesses back," Kise said, arguing against the decision.

While state attorney Kevin Wallace maintained that their two rebuttal witnesses -- Cornell professor Eric Lewis and former Trump Organization executive Kevin Sneddon -- would only address arguments already made in court, Kise argued that the witnesses would be used to backfill evidence that the defense team would not be able to address fully.

"It's not rebuttal. It's filling a hole," Kise said, accusing the state of "gamesmanship" by withholding evidence.

Unconvinced by Kise's argument, Engoron ruled that the witnesses would still be permitted to testify.

"I see no reason not to allow these two purported experts to testify," Engoron said.

In response, Trump's defense attorneys suggested they might attempt to present an additional witness after the state's rebuttal case.