Transcripts For FOXNEWSW Your 20240703

Persistent and repeated fraud. Last week we proved that in our motion for Summary Judgment. Today we will prove our other claims. My message is simple. No matter how powerful you are, no matter how much money you think you may have, nobody is above the law. Its a scam, its a sham. Just so you know, my Financial Statements are phenomenal. They are actually less in terms of the numbers used than the actual net worth. The actual net worth is substantially more. Mo bank was affected, no bank was hurt. They dont know why they have to be involved. Neil it is on and this is day one, this is live at the new york state supreme court. Donald trump appearing in that court, not holding back. The former president taking on the judge and new yorks Attorney General while defending the trump brand. The court will let out in about a half an hour. Were following all of it. Welcome, everybody. Im neil cavuto. What a day. The legal fallout from everything we did here and see often times interjected by the former president himself coming out at key breaks during the day. The latest from nate foy and the thick of it in new york city. Hi, nate. Hi, neil. We are well in to the Afternoon Session. You mentioned its expected to wrap in about a half an hour. The state has called their first witness, a man by the name of donald bender, former President Trumps old accountant. After the action wraps today, were expecting more comments from President Trump who has already spoken twice today. As you mentioned, hes been extremely critical of new York Attorney general Letitia James as well as the judge, both democrats. James filed the 250 million lawsuit last year against trump, his adult sons and the Trump Organization. Trump says hes being targeted for political reasons. Attorney general, like Letitia James, who is a disgrace to our country. Who got elected on the fact that shes going to take down President Trump. Were going to take him down. She knew nothing about me. She got elected on that basis. Neil, trump also calls james corrupt, racist and a terrible person. He says shes driving people out of new york by ignoring murders and going after him instead. James argues that trump filed false networks and lied about his net worth. Here she is this morning. Donald trump and the other defendants have committed persistent and repeated fraud. Justice will prevail. Thank you. Trumps lawyer argued that all financial records were accurate. Take a look at this video in the courtroom. Trump is seen looking serious while the justice is seen smiling and slugging. This is a nojury trial, which means the judge has sole discretion in punishing trump for fraud. The trial, neil, is expected to last through most of december. The state has an extensive list of possible witnesses. It includes former President Trump himself, as well as eric and don jr. Back to you. Neil nate, did the judge allow the cameras in or was he surprised to see them. After that initial brouhaha, those crews were out of there. What happened . Yeah, neil. The cameras were briefly allowed in at the very beginning of the proceedings today. Video cameras not permitted throughout the trial. So we have a reporter inside the courtroom relaying every little bit of information as the proceedings continue throughout the day. This is expected to last a few months. Neil thanks, nate. To tom dupree open this. And katie is also here. Tom, to you on the significance of this day. Obviously the former president wanted to make it in person. This is a civil case. Theres no jail time attached to this. Could be a hefty fine up to 250 million. The former president wanted to make it clear this is a travesty of justice and wanted to be there in person. The impact of that. What do you think . Yeah, neil. Look, were all prepared for what i think is accurately forecast as several months of testimony, off and on Financial Issues that may be the case. Today started with fireworks. The former president made a decision that he wanted to be there in person, he wanted to speak his mind. He wanted to make comments about what he thought about the entitle proceeding and then he sat in court and listened to it. Reacted to the evidence, reacted to what the judge was saying. The former president doesnt Face Criminal Charges but faces potentially serious financial consequences if he were to lose this case. He faces up to 250 million in financial penalties, possible restrictions on his right and companys right to do business in new york. The formerpresident has a lot at stake here and doesnt surprise me that he wanted to be there in person for day one. Neil katie, where i have trouble and you guys are both the legal experts, why this could take three months . The judge has ruled in the case of maralargo, the president s home and primary property in South Florida was way overvalued. So hes already stated that being the case. Theres no jury. So short of him doing a 180 and changing his mind on any or all of this, it doesnt look good for the former president. What do you think . Well, i would say that the prior ruling on the Summary Judgment is not a good omen for the rest of the case. There are still additional counts that Letitia James side has to prove including conspiracy and intent to defraud. The motion for Summary Judgment was limited to whether the entries were fraudulent based upon the valuation of those properties as the judge saw it. So theres quite a lot of Real Estate Properties that they have to go through and quite a lot of witnesses that have to be testifying. So all of the conspiracy counts still have to be adjudicated and the ultimate determination about financial penalties has to be determined as well. So even though there was that very significant pretrial decision about the entries, theres still other questions to be resolved at trial. Neil nevertheless, tom, the former president has said this proves that the president is already dead set against him, the judge is and that this isnt right. This is a sham and a scam as he said. Im just wondering what you make of that. Look, i very strongly suspect that the judge is ultimate going to rule against former President Trump on the other remaining charges. As katie noted, he issued a ruling where he found the former president committed fraud. I cant imagine theres much the judge will hear that will change his mind on this. That said, the former president s Legal Defense team has an Important Mission to accomplish here. They need to build a record that will enable them to challenge what very well may be an adverse ruling on appeal. This is not going to be the final determination of Whether Forntder President Trump needs to pay a penalty or get put out of business in new york, this is going on appeal and will be decided by a new slate of appellate judges and they will make their decision based on the evidence that goes into this trial. So i think thats the mission for the Trump Defense team over the next few weeks. If they cant convince this judge, that i have another judge or another set of judges coming up in a few months. Neil this gets back, katie, something i know a little bit about covering business and particularly in the real estate business, including mr. Trump, value is oftentimes decided in the eye of the beholder. The judge said when it came the maralargo, the president said it was vastly overstated. His laters say its a network of mona lisa properties that have outstanding value, particularly in booming florida where youre seeing Triple Digit Increases in the valuations. How much weight might that hold . Well, the judge in this case has already declared that he believes the properties were overvalued. Obviously theres an argument and trumped lawyers have made the argument that the values are subjective, theres been no complaints by any of the lenders or the banks that did their own Due Diligence and certainly no complaints were issued on the tail end when everybody made profits off of this. That is helpful to trumps side. Ultimately the judge has made it clear that regardless of the outcomes of these transactions, the fact of using fraudulent information on the filings is the violation here. Neil the former president hymn dove in to this issue when he talked about those valuations and those properties and the importance of a brand. This is from donald trump earlier today. I want you to react to it. We devalued everything. I didnt put in my best asset, the brand. Cocacola, take a look at their value. They have a value. The value of their brand is more than Everything Else put together. My brandt is extremely valuable. I didnt use it in my financial statement. If i wanted to build up a financial statement, i would have build it up by using brand in addition to Everything Else. Neil what do you make of that, tom . Yeah, look, the former president s comments played into his line of defense at this trial. Theyre arguing that valuation of properties is more the art than a science. Theres room for flexibility. Theres room for saying, look, even if the economic value that an accountant might ascribe to a particular property, that doesnt calculate the value of the brand, which makes the property worth more than an accountant might say it will. The issue is whether hyperbole crosses the line in to fraud. The trump Legal Defense team needs to say what were doing here is hyperbole. To the extent when we made the financial calculations and estimates, we have a wide range in which to do so. We didnt integrate the value of the brand and these were permissible determinations, not fraudulent claims. Neil real quickly, katie, when it comes to fraud, the president said nothing of the sort was going on. Nobody was harmed. No harm, no foul. What do you make of that defense . Well, the judge has shut that defense done. The statute does not require any sort of harm in order to find actionable conduct against a corporation. I think its very mitigating and very important that that be raised. Like tom said, the Appellate Courts will look at the record and make a new determination as to whether this file was trade and had an accurate outcome. Neil when i heard that, i thought wow, this is going to drag on awhile. Thank you both very much. Again, if the former president comes out or Letitia James or the principle players come out, well take you there. That is expected in 20 minutes or so if it happens at all. Were on top of that. Were on top of the government fighting on to keep the lights on for at least another 44, 45 days. That is not so certain for the fate of the speaker of the house, however. Aishah hasnie on that. Aishah . Hey, neil. We are still waiting for matt gaetz to filed the motion to vacation. Ill tell you who really has the gavel in their hands and what happens to it next. With the freestyle libre 2 system, know your Glucose Level and where its headed. No fingersticks needed. Manage your diabetes with more confidence. Freestyle libre 2. Try it for free at freestylelibre. Us now subways slicing their ham fresh. Like on the new grand slam ham. Piled high with double the cheese and more meat. Id like to tackle one of these after a game. Quarterbacks cant tackle anything we planned well for retirement, but i wish we had more cash. You think those two have any idea . That they can sell their Life Insurance policy for cash . So theyre basically sitting on a goldmine . I dont think they have a clue. Thats crazy well, not everyone knows coventrys helped thousands of people sell their policies for cash. Even term policies. I cant believe theyre just sitting up there sitting on all this cash. If you own a Life Insurance policy of 100,000 or more, you can sell all or part of it to coventry. Even a term policy. For cash, or a combination of cash and coverage, with no future premiums. Someone needs to tell them, that theyre sitting on a goldmine, and you have no idea hey, guys youre sitting on a goldmine come on, guys do you hear that . I dont hear anything anymore. Find out if youre sitting on a goldmine. Call Coventry Direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect. Com. Does this sound personal to you . Im pointing to specific things that kevin agreed to. Neil the notice to vacate the chair. Its Gobblely Gook for one member to say speaker, year out of here. Its no that simple. You need a majority of the house to do that. 218 votes to to that. Aishah hasnie following this drama between gates and the speaker. Neil, i dont think ive ever heard anybody say Gobblely Gook around capitol hill. Were waiting for matt gaetz to make this motion. It could happen around 6 30 when all the members return. Theres an audience. Speaker mccarthy does not come across like hes worried at all. Even though the fate of the speakers gavel really looks like it is resting in the hands of democrats right now. He told me today that he has not reached across the aisle to ask democrats to save him. Is. Speaker, you think leader jeffries might help you out . I have not spoken to jeffries or anybody else. Im focused on getting our work done. Now, theres some democrats out there like aoc that do want to vote the speaker out. Nobody knows what leader jeffries plans on telling his conference once the motion is moved. Heres the dustup. Gates says mccarthy broke promise made to House Republicans when he turned to democrats to pass the Stop Gap Bill to keep the government open. Hes Accusing Mccarthy Of Making Side deals with the president on funding for ukraine. Mccarthy denied that today and says that this is all a personal grudge against him. He says gaetz is being investigated for misconduct. Fox has told a group of House Republicans are looking to expel gaetz if hes found guilty. He says if he fails the time time around, he will keep trying this even if it takes 15 rounds to Diss Mccarthy and how he gained the gavel in the first place. This could go on and on neil . Neil thanks very much, Aishah Hasnie on that. All right. To chad the per graham and the other little drama there including the democratic congressman, facing call for his expulsion pulling a fire alarm. More on that and where things stand, a lot of angry folks on that. Chad pergram with more. Chad . Good afternoon. It was an earpiercing alarm designed to be so loud it would compel everybody to leave. New york democrat jamal bowman says he made a mistake trying to go out a locked door and pulling the fire alarm. That triggered an evacuation of the Cannon House Office building. I dont know why this has gotten so much attention. I was in a rush to go vote. Are you afraid of repercussions from leadership . I take responsibility for what i did. I was in a rush to go vote. You know, the investigation will sort Everything Else out. Republicans point out that bowman is a former school teacher. They say bowman should have known what would happen when he pulled the alarm. Congress woman malliotakis introduced a motion to expel mowman. This is not a high school. Of all people, bowman knows the old Fire Alarm Trick because he was an Old High School principal. When he was the principal, there was a serious ramifications if a student did that. Including expulsion. The resolution has 12 co sponsors. The white house is staying out of the fight. So just not going to comment. Ill leave it up to theres a house process moving forward. Ill leave it to the house. Capitol police say with us clearly marked it was an emergency exit. Bowman could face charges. Neil . Neil thanks, chad. I want to go to representative jason smith, the house ways and Means Committee chairman. Good to have you. Do you think your colleague should be punished for this . Absolutely. He broke the law. The argument of saying that it was an accident and he was rushing to go vote, neil, that say the democrats did not want to get to the Spending Bill where government was going to shut down within 12 hours, so they did a motion to adjourn. It was democrats that had the motion. The vote was called at noon. At 12 05, he pulled that alarm. Guess what . The democrats stalled the vote so much that they didnt come in at all. It was organized and planned until we hit the 217 votes for the quorum and then they came in one at a time and didnt vote at the machines. They voted by cards, one at a time. So it was an organized plan for the democrats to stall the vote. That is a pelty argument. He obstructed the proceedings and needs to be held for it. Neil lets talk about what Congressman Gaetz wanted to do. He wants the speaker to go and has quite a few that agree with him. Where is that going . Its a waste of time. The only way that matt gaetz could be successful at a motion to vacate to remove Kevin Mccarthy of speaker is if more than 200 democrats joined with him. Matt gaetz has never voted for or supported Kevin Mccarthy for speaker of the house. All 15 of the rounds to elect Kevin Mccarthy as speaker, he voted against him every time until the last time and he voted present. Neil so in your view, this is just a grudge thing . Its personal. We have a lot of work to do for the american people. The reason he claimed is because Kevin Mccarthy didnt fulfill his promise of passing all 12 Appropriation Bills by october 1. Guess what . We passed 70 of all the funding for government. We still have 30 to go. A lot of the Stall Tactics happened because he wouldnt support the rules to move forward to go to the Appropriations Bills. Think about this. We funded more than 70 of funding out of the House Of Representatives in less than four months. We couldnt start the appropriations process until we passed the debt limit bill, which was signed in to law june 3. October 3 is tomorrow. So in less than four months, the house passed more than 70 of funding. We still have more work to do. If matt does the motion to vacate, its only going to stall the tactics in order to fund government. Neil let me ask you, chairman, about What Matt Gates said when he talked to reporters earlier today. He said he had spoken to donald trump about this. He didnt reveal what that conversation was about. But the former president was keen on Republicans Holding firm on spending. He seemed very much pro shut down. Im wondering whether there is potential bad blood between the speaker and the former president. Does it worry you if that is if case . There isnt. In fact, if there was bad blood, i can tell you, matt gaetz would have shared that all over the news. The fact that he didnt he probably didnt like the conversation that donald trump told him. He probably told him to back down and not do a motion to vacation. Thats my prediction. I know President Trump quite well. Neil you raise a good point. Let me ask you about what you did when this 45day extension, whatever you want to call it. Theres a worry about border funding, Ukraine Funding. A lot of people say that is getting Nerve Racking there. You keep the government lights on until around thanksgiving. All bets are off after that. But thats why we need to continue to move forward with the Appropriations Bills this week. We have two to three that will be on the house floor. Next week well have a couple more. We need to send all of the house Appropriations Bills to the senate, have the senate pass them and go to conference. Thats how the process is supposed to work on funding government. Ukraine and the border are two big arguments and two points of conflict. You know what . We can resolve it. Well get down to the bottom of it and be done by november 15. Neil a good member of your colleagues, i dont know your position, are not keen on giving ukraine more aid. You think that that is in danger . When all is said and done, follow up measures, whatever is decided on, Ukraine Funding wont be a part of it . Its a priority to make sure you take care of you remember own borders first. Thats why you see Border Policy be front and center. Thats why Ukraine Policy is on the back burners. In fact, while there were Stall Tactics saturday, the democrats in the senate and also the democrats in the house wanted Ukraine Funding part of the continuing resolution. We wouldnt allow that. We need to make sure we address the border before we address Ukraine Funding. Neil chairman, good catching up with you. Thanks for taking the time. Jason smith. We have more coming up. Youve been hearing about the staggering new statistics on the number of migrants breaking records in the latest month. The final numbers are coming in. Why a democratic governor in new york is saying enough is enough. We want them to have a limit on who can come across the border. Its too open right now. Neil taking a look at the courthouse in new york where donald trump and his Business Empire could be on the line. The former president could come out and speak. We could hear from prosecutors as well. Stay with us. Al story. Were not an airline, but our Network Connects global businesses across nearly 160 markets. Were not a startup, but our Innovation Labs use new technologies to help keep your information secure. Were not architects, but we help build stronger communities. Were not just any bank. We are citi. That first time you take a step back. I made that. With your very own online store. I sold that. And you can manage it all in one place. I built this. And it was easy, with a partner that puts you first. Godaddy. We want them to have a limit on who can come across. Its too open right now. People coming from All Over The World are finding their way through simply saying that they need asylum. The majority seem to be ending up in the streets of new york. Thats a problem for new york city. 125,000 newly arrived individuals. Were being taxed. Neil all right. This is how bad things are getting with migrant surge. Democratic mayors and governors are setting off alarms. The latest month, 260,000 border crossings. We have never seen that many in a single month ever. Two million migrant encounters in the fiscal year. Havent seen that type of activity in quite a few years. Its accelerating. My next guest has been warning about it quite a few times. Art del cueto. Its all coming out as you envisioned sadly enough. Its getting worse. Im not quite sure what is behind this latest surge. Well, unfortunately, weve been right talking about it and saying all the issues thats been happening. Its good that we have both on both sides that say hey, we need to stop it. It is an issue that affects everyone. Neil art, im rudely interrupting. Donald trump is speaking. Lets listen to this. I think that was very good. The last five minutes was outstanding. Because the judge essentially conceded that the Statute Of Limitations that we won at the Court Of Appeals is in effect. There for about 80 of the case is over. I was going to come out and say that, as you know, were not entitled to a jury, which is unusual in the United States of america. So, you know, i think its very unfair we dont have a jury. The judges last statement was very fair. Maybe youll speak to it. The way i interpret that and the way everyone else in the room seems to interpret that is that the Statute Of Limitations is a very real thing in this country. That would be about 80 of this case would be over. Could somebody speak to that, please . Based on the judges comments at the end of the trial today, it would appear that hes agreeing all the transactions had closed prior to 2014 are now out of the case. Which is about 80 of the case. Also something that we won on appeal. But was not accepted by this court but now seems to be accepted by this court. As far as the jury is concerned, its much simplier now than it was 20 minutes ago. We were going to complain, in this country youre entitled to a jury. But we appreciate the judges decision today or his Statement Today on the Statute Of Limitations, which is a very big thing. Hes got a limited time period. We did nothing wrong. If you look as the statements, even the 2011 the number was 258 million in cash. Very strong company. I dont believe maybe i would have done a couple of deals or something but i would have needed to go to banks. Banks loved our business. They loved our deals. They lost no money. They made money. They had the finest attorneys that there are. Frankly their attorneys were better than my attorneys. They made a lot of money. They considered me a very good client. I paid them back on time, on schedule. There was no default. Never sent me a default letter, not one for years. Never got a default letter. Theres no case here. Theres no victim. The banks are not a victim, the Insurance Companies are not a victim. Everybody got paid. Its a terrible thing. This is for politics. Its been very successful for them because they took me off the campaign trail. Ive been sitting in a courthouse all day long instead of being in iowa, new hampshire, south carolina, or a lot of other places i could be at. This is a horrible situation for our country. Its never happened before. Its election interference. Theyre interfering with the pres president ial election of 2024. The people see it. This was a big surprise, but id say a great credit to the court that the judge was willing to do this. Sort of overruled himself. I greatly respect that. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Are you coming back tomorrow . We may. Id like to be campaigning instead of doing this. I built a Great Company. One thing people are saying, all the way back to 2011 and today. Its much bigger and much better. Even much more liquid. That was 258 million for a real estate company. Thats a lot of money. That was in 2011. Today its much more than that. Much, much more. I built a Great Company and did great things for new york. They should respect that. Ive employed thousands and thousands of people in new york. They should respect that. The Attorney General of this state is a disgrace. Letitia james is a disgrace to our country and to the state of new york. She should focus on the vial lentz crime and the murders going on in new york, not somebody that paid back the banks in full without a default and in many cases paid them back early. Thank you very much. Neil all right. You never know when donald trump will add something again. If were to take mr. Trump at his word, his interpretation is accurate, it would appear that the judge in the case has changed the period at which some of these cases would hold. In other words, that the transaction period, anything prior to 2014, these are real estate and related Business Transactions on the part of the Trump Organization and more specifically those having to to with real estate and that sort of thing. Not exclusively. Theyre not going to include those prior to 2014. The former president i believe said that means about 80 of the cases that were part of this will no longer be part of this. The former president made a reference to the fact that theres no jury involved here. Theres disputes as to whether that was ruled by the judge or some have said that donald trump and his legal team did not want to have a jury here. I dont know exactly what the real skinny is on that. Katie has more hahn the significance of that. Katie, first off on these transactions, the ones that go prior to the year 2014, if were to accept what donald trump said at face value, the judge has ruled that they will not be a part of that. What do you make of that . The trump team has been disputing the Statute Of Limitations on some properties and other assets. If that is the case and this is going to be more limited to properties and other assets after that time period, that reduce any potential damages presumably. So obviously would be very favorable to trumps side. The big question that remains here is how much, if any, damages are going to be assessed by the court. Neil so would that include i know were getting Into The Woods here the controversial evaluation of maralargo, the president s home. The president says its worth in excess of a billion dollars. The question at hand is at what time or what period that was valued by the former president. Do we know whether if its a pre2014 evaluation that was called in to question and dismissed by the judge . That i personally dont know. Obviously i think the overarching Defense Strategy here is to suggest that the brand does have significant external value that was never calculated in any of these filings in the first place. So certainly i think theyre going to make that argument regardless of the time frame. If this is true, this would limit the exposure on damages because what the judge will look at in regards to damages is how much profit was gained from these particular transactions that are at issue and whether that should be the subject of damages that the Trump Organization has to pay as a result. Neil katie, if you can stay there. I want to bring Mercedes Colwin in, a legal eagle herself. Mercedes, the former president is saying that these account for about 80 of the transactions that were originally cited by Letitia James office. Im paraphrasing here. I think i got the gist right. If its 80 , now thrown out here, that is a big deal. Well, it is. I think katie is exactly right. What the a. G. Is looking for at minimum, 250 million in penalties. That is significant. If the bulk of the case is out the window, then that valuation will be significantly less. I think theres significant issue for the defense. You know a very key witness for the former President Trump was his accountants and they testified that they had their relationship with the president during the pendency of this investigation and they made an astounding admission that will be complicated. Its an admission, but simply states that these financial records that they produced, that they worked on with former President Trump cannot be relied on. The fact that that provide Add Safety Defense or the the net is a hail mary. Which such a devastating testimony from the accountants and having litigated these cases for years, both in litigation and the investigation by regulatory agencies like the a. G. s office on behalf of clients, i can tell you that i relied very heavily on those professionals. The accountants. The fact that you have an Accounting Firm distancing themselves from former President Trump, that is problematic. Hail mary may sway and help the defense by limiting the ultimate damages. But as it stands now, they have a very tough defense ahead. Neil for those just watching at home, were watching former President Trump leaving this civil courthouse. Business transactions were targeted. He was brought up on charges of massive civil fraud here, none of which would be punishable by jail time but could bey be hefty fines. We dont know where trump is staying. Could be at bedminster and then he would hop on the f. D. R. Drive on the eastern part of manhattan, head out if he were going to new jersey through the Holland Tunnel in this case. I dont want to bore you with directions and think of myself if im in a car, im usually stuck in traffic. Its clear for the former president in this event. Im back with katie. One of the interesting developments here, normally when donald trump is unhappy with something and he was very unhappy and justifiably so according to his supporters given his treatment in this case, he said it was very unfair. He criticized the new York Attorney general, Letitia James and the judge. He was not criticizing the judge by days end and reprising this dropping only solve these these prior transactions. He has a more favorable view of him now. What do you think . I think that if true, these other prior transactions are not part of the litigation anymore. Thats a huge win for the trump side. Obviously i think trump has a personal interest in this. When theres an allegation of fraud, that cuts to someones character. I think hes personally invested in the outcome of this. He wants to make his position clear regarding his disagreement with the judges evaluation of the properties and perhaps hes seeing that he would be given somewhat of a fair trial even though a lot of the underlying issues have been resolved and i dont think theres a very surefire win for them in the future. Things have to play out. It will be three months or more of testimony and evidence. So much remains to be resolved. I agree he was much more pleased with the judge. Neil this was going to be a 250 million fine that the former president was going to face. I dont know if some of these charges and transaction go prior to 2014, Mercedes Colwin are part of that and no way to decipher from that. Even if hes found guilty of the other post 24 transactions that were inflated or that were not real as some have said, what that fine ultimately would be. But your thoughts. A great argument and a great question. Theres a great argument for the defense to say when the bulk of the case is gone, you cant possibly levy what you initially tried to get from former President Trump. If the initial plan was to exexact at a minimum 250 million in fines and the judge throws out 80 of your case, well then certainly that number is going to be significantly less. Theres an argument for the defense to state that. We have not scratched the surface here, neil. All of these rulings can later on be challenged in an appeal and you know that if there is an adverse action taken against former President Trump, we can bet that he will appeal it to a higher court. Martha thanks, mercedes. Some slight difficulty with your audio. Katie, if i can explore with you what this means now. The former president has been very critical of this process, that it could go on for months. I dont know. Even you cited yourself, katie, the 80 , theres no way to verify that. Lets say 80 of the case is thrown out and that 80 of the transactions going back to 2014 prior are not part of this, it could mean a quicker trial, could it not . Well, i would imagine it would be a much quicker trial. Essentially what has to happen is that there needs to be testimony regarding the allegations of conspiracy only for those transactions that are still part of this case. So that would drastically reduce the witness list, i would imagine, and the other evidence that both sides would need to present. Should streamline this quite significantly if that is in fact the judges ruling. Neil katie, are you surprised the quickness of this . There was a lot of bad blood, a lot of tension early on. You heard it from the former president , you heard it in his voice. For the judge to rule as he did, day one, what do you make of that . Is that unusual . This is only a bench trial, not a jury. This speeds things up. The judge already issued a very scathing order very adverse to trump and his attorneys pretrial as we all know at this point. So in terms of the judges decision, regarding the separate issue of the Statute Of Limitations and the time frame to be adjudicated, that was a huge win if thats what the judge ruled today. Thats a significant win. The major question here is the amount of damages that will be assessed against trump and his organization. If 80 of those transactions are not at play here, then the damages are going to be less. Because the way the damages are calculated is based upon the ill gotten gains from each of the transactions. So youre literally taking the singular transactions and looking at what if any penalties should be assessed for that particular transactions. Less transactions, less damages. Neil youre watching donald trump and his legal team oncars afforded to former president s. Hes leaving the federal courthouse in lower manhattan. He appears to be going north on the fdr drive on the eastern side of manhattan. So that means that hes is sticking around in the city or so it would appear unless hes flying out tonight. He could be going back to the trump tower, his home in midtown. We dont know. Maybe nate foy does know. He has been following from the beginning. Do we know where donald trump is going and where he will spend his night . Were working to confirm that. He spent last night in trump tower, one of the properties that hes accused of fraudulently overvaluing. Donald trump made three separate statements. One after the morning session, another a short time after, before the Afternoon Session and just heard him speak again. He appeared more positive in regards to the judge in this case. Trump has been very critical of him throughout the entire day referring to him as deranged and very partisan. The judge is a democrat. However, President Trump appeared optimistic as at the end of todays proceedings, the judge appeared to sort of wonder out loud in the Statute Of Limitations had run out on some of these transactions. President trump said it covered about 80 of the case. He appears to be very interested in what will come tomorrow. That is something that the state said that they would clarify in regards to why they brought up the older transactions during tomorrows pro sealings. I wouldnt be surprised if we saw former President Trump back here tomorrow. Were working to confirm that, neil. Neil in your earlier reporting, nate i dont want your words out of context here, how important it was for him to show up. He felt an obligation that this was important. This is his whole entire reputation, his business acumen, his smarts, how he turned what was a multimillion Dollar Operation in to a multibbillio Dollar Operation worldwide. He didnt like the questions about inflating the value of the properties and the businesses themselves. This was personal to him, not just business. Oh, absolutely, neil. I mean, his financial record and his Business Record i guess would be a better way of saying it is at the very core of who he is and how he built himself in to an empire, a business and also now in politics. Keep in mind, this was very much his decision to come here today. He didnt need to be here. Weve seen former President Trump not attend other civil trials. I believe that he senses a political opportunity here. You saw the video today with the judge smiling and slugging. Juxtaposed with former President Trump looking very, very serious and just prior to that video being taken or just after that video being taken, after the morning session, you heard foreman President Trump say that he feels this is very partisan. So that image im sure is one that will stick with many of former President Trumps supporters. Weve seen as he continues to get in more legal trouble his polling and his fund raising just continues to increase. Right now hes still by far the leading republican contender for president. Neil it does look like he is heading to midtown. I could be wrong. That would prove that your point that he sticks around to go tomorrow to see what is in the offering in person is very likely. That he wouldnt be leaving town, i guess, right . If i had to guess right now, neil, i would guess that hes going to spend the night here in new york. Again, were working to confirm that right now. We do have a reporter inside the courthouse. Im wondering or im hoping that we can get some clarification on that here shortly. You heard the former president say he doesnt think its fair that he doesnt have a jury. This case is a nonjury case where the judge will have sole discretion . Punishing the former president. I mentioned the optimism that was shared as former President Trump just left the courthouse. Everything prior to that has been very negative in regards to the justice that ruled against former President Trump last week and finding him liable for fraud and previously held him in Contempt Of Court and fined him 110,000. It will be interesting to see how the state moves forward tomorrow and how they tie together these older transactions where President Trump is convinced the statute ute of limitations have run out on those transactions. Neil thank you, nate foy. The president seems to be making his way to his Midtown Manhattan offices crossing from the east side to the west side, Trump Tower On Fifth Avenue by central park. John yoo joins us right now. John, the significance of katie points out could be important to wage, not only because of just the tone and the iciness going into this today and within the same first day the judge then saying, all right, all of these cases prior to 2014, theyre not going to be a part of this. That dramatically limited the scope of this investigation. So im just wondering what you make of that. I think we just lost john. I want to ask that to katie again. This is an Important Development if it proves that was the case. And reason for the former president maybe to not speak ill of the judge as he was in prior comments to the press. What do you make of that . Well, quite frankly, im a little bit surprised that it would come out after the first day of trial. It would typically be something that could be determined pretrial just like that other motion that was filed that found that he had in fact committed fraud in those filings. So im curious to see how that ended up developing. Ultimately its a significant win for trumps side. Again, the damages that are on the table here, which is the biggest question that has to be resolved at this point, might very drastically be limited. Judges wait until trial begins to issue certain rulings, depending how the evidence comes out. So that could very well have been what was going on in this case. Neil john, you are back with us. The significance of this judge deciding to scrap what could be up to 80 of some of the cases that they were looking at in real estate transactions going back to 2014 and before. A good many of them were before 2014. That is unusual, is it not, on a first day a. Its unusual and it also shows that maybe President Trumps Mission Accomplished because he came in person, produced the unprecedented first in our in American History video of a president sitting in a courtroom as a defendant face to face with this judge he has accused of being rogue. A judge who is racist. The judge and the court are going to be more flexible than many people expected including me. I think the first the judge found that trump has lost and its supposed to be now entering the part of the proceedings that are more like sentencing in a criminal trial where we are talking about the amount of damages that are supposed to be paid, whether the Trump Organization, even the family, trump themself are going to be expelled from doing business in new york. If the judge is going to seriously nair he ro the number of cases that are going to be considered for damages, that might actually count as something of a victory for President Trump which is not what most people were expecting this week. All right. As you are speaking, don and katie. As i suspected the president is returning to trump tower. We could tell the way it was going back. He is in the city another night at home, he has a triplex there, its a hue hung goes home, a beautiful home. Center of his business activities. One thing that could have been taken away, might still be taken away as a result of this civil action although it has been dramatically neutered now if we are to accept these latest developments we are hearing from the former president but others are confirming that this did indeed happen. John, while i have you hear, the former president doesnt have a jury in this trial because he and or his lawyers didnt want one. What would be the logic of that . Usually the right to a jury is a defendants right, guaranteed under the constitution. Each state can decide that in many ways for itself. Here i think President Trumps lawyers and President Trump didnt want a jury. Usually do you that because you are confident that you should win or you really want to speed things up, a jury trial can really slow things down. I actually think that decision backfired on them. This judge decided very quickly against them. So, i dont think it makes a lot of sense now to complain that you didnt get a jury because you had every right to ask for one earlier. And you decided against it for tactical reasons. That doesnt mean that President Trump wont have a lot of other things to appeal although as we were talking about before, telejudges are unlikely want to be weighed, complicated facts when there arent significant legal questions. He didnt have good things to say about judge arthur earlier. You alluded to quickly, john, that maybe his getting in the judges face not only in the court but outside, you know, really criticizing him, him going too far, it had an effect, i would imagine. Yes. I mean, first shows that the judge is a little bit responsive to political pleasure which he shouldnt be. A judge should ignore that. I was embarrassed when i saw the judge giggling. That was widely criticized. He should stick to his guns and rule on the law and facts regardless what the pressure is. I thought President Trump thought he already lost, he was using this as a political platform to campaign, to show im tough, i am going head to head with this corrupt justice system, if the judge bend as little bit backwards in this face of this kind of pressure, nobody looks good. The judge doesnt look good. The judges system doesnt look good. The President Trump comes out ahead. So much to figure out, well get details exactly what transpired, thank you, katie thank you. And again for donald trump he talked up earlier today. He might have gotten a large part of what he wanted, most of those charges now dropped. The five now. Hello everybody, im jess