Sad!

Donald Trump had his worst day yet in his ongoing civil fraud trial in New York on Tuesday at the hands of his own key witness, a former Trump Organization executive who linked the former president directly to the fuzzy math at the center of the case.

[...]

Jeffrey McConney, who was the comptroller and spreadsheet czar at the Trump Org [...] had been called to the witness stand by the defense, but on cross-examination by lawyers for the state attorney general's office Tuesday, he linked Trump firmly to the conspiracy and fraud counts that have yet to be decided in the non-jury trial.

[...]

[The state's lawyer, Andrew Amer, asked] whether Trump would get the final review of every net-worth statement until leaving for the White House in 2017, after which Eric Trump would approve the drafts.

"That was my understanding, yes," McConney answered again. Asked whether that was his handwriting on the drafts — the thin blue pen marks — McConney also said yes, it was.

[...]

Trump, who has not attended the trial for the past two weeks, had said on the witness stand on November 6 that he had little involvement in the drafting of these net-worth statements. In a pretrial deposition, he denied knowing who had written "DJT to get final review" on that 2014 draft.

[...]

[McConney] had testified on direct examination Monday that he would review each year's draft net-worth statement with Weisselberg, who would then give the approved draft to the outside accounting firm, Mazars USA, which would print the final statement.

This chain of command — McConney to Weisselberg to Mazars — leaves out one very important link, as the state's lawyer, Amer, pointed out on cross on Tuesday.

"I believe there was a step in between that involved Donald Trump prior to 2017?" Amer said to McConney, who appeared uncomfortable on the stand as he said Trump indeed did the ultimate signing off.

McConney's blue-ink handwriting is all over the net-worth statement drafts, showing he revised language and even added cautionary notes that were then passed along for Trump's "final review."

[...]

In one key cautionary note from the 2015 draft, McConney made a notation in ink that "this computation also includes forecasted deals that have not signed yet." In the note, McConney asked whether Trump wanted to exclude some $151 million in as-yet-fictional assets from the net-worth statement.

The final version of that year's net-worth statement shows McConney's suggestion was ignored, possibly by Trump himself.

  Business Insider

Obviously by Trump himself since he always got "final review."

The attorney general's office [...] appears poised to argue that these handwritten notes show McConney, Weisselberg, and Trump intentionally conspired in cooking the numbers each year. Intent and conspiracy are two elements that must be proved for the attorney general to win all six of the yet-decided counts in the case.

[...]

New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron has already found, pretrial, that Trump's 2014-through-2021 statements fraudulently inflated his wealth.

[...]

The trial is meant to determine whether the five defendants further broke six specific state laws: falsifying business records, filing false financial statements, insurance fraud, and conspiracy to commit each of these counts.

[...]

McConney's many handwritten notes indicate it was Trump and his top executives who made the last edits and then signed off on these net-worth statements. As such, the notes do serious damage to the primary Trump defense: blame Mazars, blame the accountants.

Now he's going to blame McConney.

The fact that these incriminating, hand-scrawled drafts were turned over to authorities by Mazars but not by the Trump Organization could come up at the end of the trial as evidence that Trump's side failed to retain and turn over documents as required by state subpoenas.

[...]

Since the case is civil, not criminal, the judge will not issue a "guilty" verdict. Instead, his verdict will find whether the five defendants are "liable" for monetary and other penalties for violating these six laws.

I think we all know the answer to that.

McConney's cross-examination came minutes after a dramatic, tearful conclusion to his direct testimony.

The longtime Trump executive became weepy in answering the final question from the defense lawyer Jesus Suarez, who asked why he'd left the Trump Organization after 35 years working there.

He left to "stop being accused of misrepresenting assets for the company that I loved working for," he said, wiping away tears.

I wonder who was accusing him of that.

"It was like working with family," he said.

Yeah, pal. That family stuff only goes one way in Trumpland. And it's not from them to you.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.