Summing up the morning: Donald Trump Jr has been slowly, painfully, moving through every single project that Donald Trump or the Trump Organization was involved with going back to its inception. That included a slide show telling the story of Don Jr.’s great-grandfather, then visiting properties one at a time. At every stop, they have been showing slides of high-end apartments, big atriums, and rooftop bars. Junior has used the phrase “one of the finest” followed by hotel, golf course, office tower, followed by “anywhere in the world” dozens of times.
The whole thing is clearly a sales pitch put together, not for Judge Engoron, but for potential investors. Junior is doing it because he has just as clearly done it before. He knows how to wax enthusiastic over a fountain or go on for minutes about the carpets. All of it is “fabulous,” and “spectacular,” and very definitely “world-class.”
It’s also worthless. Because everything that the defense has been showing is completely subjective statements unsupported by any independent evidence.
The only potential outcome of the morning is improving the case for the state. Because at multiple points the sales pitch did what sales pitches do—exaggerate to the extent of outright lying. For example, today’s testimony added nine floors to 40 Wall Street and finished with a $1.3B valuation for Doral that not only assumes tearing up a golf course to plant hundreds of condos, but also requires that the county rezone the area to permit the construction. The Doral brochure submitted into evidence by the defense is a perfect example of what the state alleges: Trump has repeatedly replaced the actual values of his property with exaggerated claims of potential value.
