Live updates: Trump Org criminal tax-fraud trial could hinge on 3 words
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- The criminal tax-fraud case against the Trump Organization is taking place in Manhattan.
- Donald Trump's business empire is accused of defrauding tax authorities by paying executives off the books.
- Trump's lawyers are fighting over three words that could affect who wins the trial.
Andrew Harnik/AP
Donald Trump's business empire is in a pitched, behind-the-scenes battle with prosecutors over three little words that could make or break the company's ongoing Manhattan tax-fraud trial.
The three words are "in behalf of."
The words have permeated the three-week-old trial taking place at New York Supreme Court in lower Manhattan, though the jury has barely heard reference to them.
They are crucial to each of the 15 criminal charges against the Trump Organization — charges alleging that the former president's real-estate and golf-resort company conspired with its own top financial executives in a 15-year tax-dodge scheme.
Joe Maiorana/AP Photo
The criminal tax-fraud trial of Donald Trump's real-estate and golf-resort empire resumed on Thursday after the prosecution's first witness tested positive for COVID-19 on November 1, temporarily delaying proceedings.
Jeffrey McConney, the Trump Organization's $450,000-a-year controller, is now back on the stand in the Manhattan courtroom.
"I'm glad you're feeling better," the trial judge, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, told McConney as he took his seat in the witness box.
"I want to take a minute to apologize for the delays. I want to thank all of you for your patience and understanding," the judge told the jury, all of whom made it through sitting a few yards from the controller last week and the week before without apparent illness.
Mary Altaffer/AP
Jurors in the Trump Organization criminal tax-fraud trial have seen the first evidence directly linking Donald Trump to the case, including key documents bearing the former president's distinctive Sharpie-scrawled signatures and initials.
This early prosecution breakthrough came Tuesday in the Manhattan courtroom where Trump's real-estate and golf resort empire — though not Trump himself — is on trial for allegedly helping its executives cheat on their income taxes.
Jurors were shown what the prosecution said and what a witness confirmed were Trump's signatures on some half-dozen important letters and payroll documents. It's evidence meant to soundly refute defense claims that the tax-dodge scheme stopped one rung down from the very top of the company, meaning just short of involving anyone named Trump.
The documents were introduced through the trial's first witness, Jeffrey McConney, who as Trump Organization's controller is responsible for its payroll and tax reporting.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
The Trump Organization tax-fraud trial has been halted for at least the rest of the week after the prosecution's first witness tested positive for COVID-19 during the break.
Jeffrey McConney, the longtime controller for Trump's namesake business, tested positive for the virus after coughing throughout his time on the witness stand on Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning in New York Supreme Court in lower Manhattan.
Al Drago/Getty Images
Defense attorneys in the New York criminal tax-fraud trial of former President Donald Trump's international real-estate company unveiled their strategy in the case on Monday — keep all blame off the former president and anyone else with the Trump name.
Trump Organization lawyer Susan Necheles told the jury during opening statements on Monday that the fraud scheme "started with" former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg "and it ended with Allen Weisselberg."
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Donald Trump's lawyers will be in a New York state of mind this week, when they'll argue on behalf of the former president and his company before state judges in three courthouses within the city limits.
Just one of the three cases could ultimately do Trump severe damage — New York Attorney General Letitia James' $250 million fraud lawsuit, which seeks to run him, his three eldest children, and his company, the Trump Organization, out of New York state.
Opening statements in that trial will begin on Monday.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
Of the 12 jurors serving in the Trump Organization trial, three openly expressed dislike for the former president.
The fact that two people who expressed negative views of Trump made it onto the jury suggests that Trump's lawyers ran out of peremptory strikes to dismiss these jurors, Lawyers told Insider.
"I absolutely believe that once the jury is picked, the case is over," one lawyer specializing in jury selection told Insider. "You pick the right jury, you're going to win. You don't pay attention to these things ... you're just rolling your dice. You might as well go to the craps table in Vegas. In fact, you probably get better odds there."
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images, left. Nicolas Economou/Getty Images, right.
The twelve jurors for former President Donald Trump's company tax-fraud trial have been chosen.
The list includes four women — one that is white — and eight men — three of whom are white.
Three of the jurors have expressed their dislike for the former president but promised to be unbiased throughout the trial.
Trump is not on trial but his $3 billion real-estate and golf resort empire is.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
A quarter of the jury that will decide the criminal case against Donald Trump's business empire has openly said they're not fans of the former president.
Of the 12 people serving on the panel, three have expressed their disfavor of Trump during questioning by prosecutors and defense attorneys in the courtroom, but said that they could be fair and impartial as jurors.
One man who would become juror No. 8 called Trump "narcissistic" on Thursday.
"Honestly, I used to think he was funny before he was president," the man said in court of Trump, adding, "Then he started acting a little crazy and narcissistic."
"That's the only reason I didn't like him as president — not so much policy," he said.
Getty
The middle-aged man old New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Manuel Merchan on day three of jury selection in the Manhattan trial that he had "strong feelings" about Trump that "turned into a very visceral feeling in my gut" overnight.
The man said he had not had feelings like that about the Republican businessman-turned-politician in the two years since Trump was president.
"I don't feel like it's a very healthy thing for me to be here," the man told Merchan before he was ultimately excused.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images, left. Nicolas Economou/Getty Images, right.
The Manhattan jury that will decide whether former President Donald Trump's international real-estate company is guilty of tax fraud includes two women who said in court that they didn't like how the former president ran the country.
The first seven jurors were selected Tuesday in the state Supreme Court case, which alleges that the Trump Organization ran a 15-year scheme to help top executives cheat on their taxes.
Al Drago/Getty Images
Jury selection in the New York criminal tax-fraud trial of Donald Trump's real-estate and golf-resort empire is already proving to be an uphill battle with potential jurors on Tuesday openly sharing their disdain for the former Republican president.
About 11 of the 18 prospective jurors questioned Tuesday by lawyers in the high-profile trial playing out in New York Supreme Court in lower Manhattan said they have strong feelings against Trump.
One called Trump a "criminal" who did "irreparable harm." That man was dismissed and will not serve on the jury.
AP Photo/Joe Maiorana, File
Prospective jurors in the New York criminal tax-fraud trial of Donald Trump's real-estate and golf-resort empire are being questioned on Tuesday by lawyers from each side.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers are using a questionnaire made up of 32 questions, including ones about what the potential jurors do for a living, whether they watch the news, and if they have "strong opinions" or "firmly held beliefs" about Trump, the former president.
Ross D. Franklin/AP
Some potential jurors in the criminal tax-fraud trial of Donald Trump's real-estate and golf-resort empire gasped in a Manhattan court on Monday when they learned they might serve in a case surrounding the former president's business.
The jury that is ultimately chosen in the high-profile trial will determine if the Trump Organization defrauded tax authorities .
Mary Altaffer/AP
A New York advertising executive who was excused from the potential jury pool in the criminal tax-fraud trial of Donald Trump's real-estate and golf-resort empire on Monday said that "there is no chance in hell" she could be impartial about anything to do with the former Republican president.
"He's guilty in my mind whatever the case is — anything he does, anything his corporation does," the 34-year-old Manhattan woman who would only identify herself as Adrienne told reporters in reference to Trump as she was on her way out of New York Supreme Court in lower Manhattan.
The woman, who lives in the Midtown East neighborhood, made the remarks as jury selection was underway in the tax evasion trial of Trump's business, the Trump Organization.
Even though Trump himself is not on trial in the high-profile case, Adrienne said there was "no way" she could be impartial.
José Luis Villegas/AP
Jury selection began in the criminal tax-fraud trial of former President Donald Trump's business, the Trump Organization, on Monday morning.
Some 130 prospective jurors were crammed into a downtown Manhattan courtroom on Monday for the initial culling of the pool based on whether they can be impartial and serve on a trial that could last until the brink of the holidays.
"Some of you are about to be selected for a trial in a criminal case," they were told by New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, who swore them in at just after 11 a.m.
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