NEW YORK — Donald Trump has testified in court about his experiences as a football owner, casino constructor, and airline buyer. In a deposition, he boasted that as president, he saved “millions of lives” by delaying nuclear war. Another time, he was concerned about the dangers of throwing fruit.

Trump’s  been conditioned by decades of trials and legal wranglings, and he is now prepared to resume his role as a witness under exceptional circumstances: as a former Republican president battling to salvage the real estate enterprise that catapulted him to celebrity and the White House.

Trump is scheduled to testify in his New York civil fraud trial on Monday, a profoundly personal subject that is essential to his image as a successful businessman and threatens to cost him ownership of major buildings such as Trump Tower. His evidence in the trial of New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit comes on the heels of that of his eldest sons, Trump Organisation executives Eric and Donald Trump Jr., who testified last week. Ivanka, his eldest daughter, is scheduled to testify on Wednesday.

A state counsel teased the former president’s presence as the court adjourned on Friday. When the judge asked who would testify on Monday, Andrew Amer said, “The only witness will be Donald J. Trump.”

According to an Associated Press assessment of court documents and news coverage, Trump has testified in at least eight trials since 1986. He has also testified under oath in over a dozen depositions and regulatory hearings.

Trump’s Decades Of Testimony Reveal Some Details About How He Plans To Defend His Real Estate Empire.

As owner of the USFL’s New Jersey Generals, he was invited to appear before Congress in 1985, and he testified on behalf of lawyer and friend Roy Cohn during a state disciplinary inquiry that resulted in Cohn’s disbarment. In an early display of his fiery persona, Trump informed the New Jersey gaming board in 1986 that plans for highway overpasses near one of his casinos “would be a disaster.” It would be a disaster.”

Those testimonies, documented in thousands of pages of transcripts and on videotape in certain cases, provide insight into Trump’s likely approach when he testifies in Manhattan.

They draw significant parallels between Trump as a witness and Trump as a former president and current presidential contender. His rhetorical technique in court has echoes of his political zeal: a blend of ego, charm, defensiveness, aggression, cutting language, and evasion. He has been belligerent and bombastic, but he has also been evasive and contemptuous at times.

Trump blasted charges that he had spied on NFL officials at one of his hotels while testifying in the USFL’s antitrust case against the NFL in 1986, calling the claim “such a false interpretation it’s disgusting.”

During a break in his evidence at a federal court hearing in Washington in 1988, as he sought to purchase Eastern Air Lines’ Northeast shuttle service, Trump turned on the charisma, flashing a big smile at the judge’s female law clerks and shaking hands with the bailiff. Trump said that his $365 million acquisition, which was later approved, would provide a “major boost in morale” to staff.

Trump touted a Mike Tyson fight he planned for one of his casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on the stand in a boxing-related matter in 1990 as “one of the greatest rematches you could have.” When accused by two men of excluding them from a riverboat gambling project, Trump claimed ignorance, saying in 1999: “I was shocked by the whole case.” I have no notion who these individuals were.”

Last month, Trump was briefly summoned to the stand in the New York case to clarify comments he made outside of court that the judge ruled breached a limited gag order.

He last testified in court in 2013, two years before launching his successful presidential campaign. An 87-year-old suburban Chicago widower had sued him over contract revisions for a hotel and condominium project in which she had purchased units as an investment. Trump became increasingly upset during his statement, lifting his arms and yelling, “And then she sued me.” It’s incredible!”

On behalf of the plaintiff, Jacqueline Goldberg, Chicago lawyer Shelly Kulwin cross-examined Trump. He claimed that Trump’s testimony inside the federal courthouse in Chicago mirrored the bruising ebb and flow witnessed later at campaign rallies and on television.

“At first, he was calm, but then he became argumentative, defensive, off-topic, and speechmaking.” “That’s exactly what he does now,” Kulwin explained in an interview.

Trump’s Decades Of Testimony Reveal Some Details About How He Plans To Defend His Real Estate Empire.

“Based on my experience with him, you better be able to have super tight questions, with documents to support them, so that he cannot wiggle around,” she said. “Before he took the stand, I would approach the judge and tell him, ‘Mr. Trump, this is not a political campaign.'” You’re not attempting to get their support. ‘This is a legal action.'”

Goldberg lost to Trump, but she didn’t regret suing him, saying, “Somebody had to stand up to him.” She passed away in August at the age of 97.

Trump has spent seven days in New York, carefully scrutinizing testimony from the defense table but simultaneously lashing out in front of TV cameras in the corridor at the case, the judge, and state lawyers. He has termed the case a “sham,” “scam,” and “a continuation of the single greatest witch hunt of all time.”

In his social media comments about the case, he reveals the trial’s “Perry Mason” moments — testimony and arguments he believes have aided his side — as he pays homage to the classic TV courtroom drama.

Trump testified in a losing case in 1990 regarding his company’s failure to make pension contributions on behalf of around 200 undocumented Polish workers hired to demolish a structure to make space for Trump Tower. A year later, he was again in court in Manhattan, this time testifying against a man who claimed he had a contract to create Trump’s board game and was promised 25% of the earnings from “Trump: The Game.”

Trump’s Decades Of Testimony Reveal Some Details About How He Plans To Defend His Real Estate Empire.

Trump won that lawsuit, as well as another in 2005, in which he claimed that a construction business “fleeced” him by overcharging him by $1.5 million for work at a golf club in New York’s Westchester County.

Trump’s current New York trial depends partly on how much he and other Trump Organisation executives were involved in assessing his properties and calculating his wealth for the annual financial statements sent to banks, insurers, and others to negotiate agreements and secure funding.

The assertions, according to James, boosted Trump’s net worth by billions of dollars, making him look to lenders as a more creditworthy risk and allowing him to secure lower interest and insurance rates. Trump has repeatedly denied any misconduct.

Eric and Donald Trump Jr. said they relied on an outside accounting firm and the Trump Organization’s financial team to compile the statements, which they felt were correct.

In an April deposition, Trump stated that he never thought his financial records “would be taken very seriously” and that a disclaimer advised individuals doing business with him to conduct their research.

He asserted that the banks James claims were taken advantage of with exorbitant values, suffered no harm, were paid in his transactions, and “to this day have no complaints.” Trump called the lawsuit “terrible,” telling James and her team that “you don’t have a case.”

The judge ruled that the remarks were false before the trial. He started transferring control of some Trump firms to a court-appointed receiver. For the time being, an appeals court has put that on hold.

The non-jury trial is already in its second month and involves accusations of conspiracy, insurance fraud, and fabricating corporate records. James is seeking $250 million in penalties and a prohibition on the defendants doing business in New York in his lawsuit against Trump, his firm, and key officials, including his eldest sons.

Trump’s Decades Of Testimony Reveal Some Details About How He Plans To Defend His Real Estate Empire.

When questioned about his commercial and financial transactions in the past, Trump has occasionally evaded accountability and culpability. In a 2013 deposition on a failed Florida condominium project, Trump blamed an employee for paperwork indicating that he was building a property when he was not.

“I have a woman that does it,” he explained. He then began dissecting the problematic language, stating, “But you know, developing, the word develop, it can be used in a lot of different contexts.”

Another recurring theme in Trump’s depositions is his surprise that he is being taken seriously for puffing up his real estate projects.

“You always want to put the best possible spin on a property that you can,” Trump stated in a December 2007 deposition in his lawsuit against a journalist he accused of underestimating Trump’s riches. “No different than any other real estate developer, no different than any other businessman, no different than any politician.”

Trump’s propensity for hyperbole will undoubtedly come up on Monday. He and his company are accused of inflating his property valuations and maximizing the outcomes using several tactics. He even described his Trump Tower penthouse in Manhattan as three times its true size for years. He now says that his financial statements understated his fortune and that his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, is worth more than $1 billion.

Trump’s Decades Of Testimony Reveal Some Details About How He Plans To Defend His Real Estate Empire.

Trump is characterizing the civil fraud case and his four criminal proceedings as manifestations of political persecution aimed at impeding his candidature as the Republican front-runner for president in 2024. He has already mentioned his political standing in court, including during a 2016 deposition when he mentioned, unprompted, how he had defeated his Republican primary opponents.

“I have credibility because, as it turns out, I am now the Republican nominee running against a total of 17 people, mostly senators and governors, who are highly respected people.” it’s not like I’ve said something that could be that horrible,” he explained.

Trump defined the president as the “most important job in the world” in his April deposition before boasting about saving lives by preventing North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un from launching a nuclear assault.

Trump waxed poetic about weapons of a different kind in an October 2021 deposition, warning of the risks posed by tomatoes and other fruit, which he worried might be thrown at him on the campaign trail.

“You get hit with fruit it’s — no, it’s very violent stuff,” he went on to say. Trump was testifying in connection with a complaint filed by a group of demonstrators who claimed Trump’s private security guards assaulted them while he was campaigning in 2015.

Trump was asked about a speech in which he urged the audience, “If you see someone about to throw a tomato, just knock the crap out of them, would you?”

“It was said rather jokingly. “Perhaps a little truth to it,” Trump remarked of his statements.

“This is an extremely hazardous material.” “Those things can kill you,” he said. “I wanted people to be prepared because we had been warned that they would do fruit.” And certain fruits are far worse than others — tomatoes, for example. But it’s quite risky.”

SOURCE – (AP)