SIPHONING: Expert witnesses are draining Trump’s defense funds
Every civil attorney knows that some portion of the case is going to require expert testimony, whether it is a medical malpractice suit or a case involving a special part of a complex machine, an expert will be required — and it’s no different for Donald Trump other than the fact that he’s had multiple cases involving multiple witnesses.
The other thing about expert witnesses is that they cost a fortune. Their bills are as timely as they are high.
Trump has already had to shell out $2.5 million in expert witness fees over the last 30 days, and that figure will likely triple over the next six months.
It is not surprising that Trump has paid an amount most would consider enough for a very nice retirement account.
Experts are the only type of witnesses who can provide opinion testimony. The guy who saw the car crash cannot say, “In my opinion, the red car was going so fast that the blue car didn’t have time to get out of the way… ” No. The witness is a fact witness, and the jury understands matters generally known by the public.
However, an expert who possesses specialized knowledge, including how banks evaluate the terms of a loan, can testify as to their opinion to the jury, such as, “In my opinion, a bank can’t properly do its due diligence based on false numbers and risks losing a ton of shareholder money.”
And that is why Donald Trump has spent $2.5 million on expert fees in his civil cases. He has had to hire a lot of expert witnesses. According to a report from ABC News:
“Along with testimony from Deutsche Bank executives, Trump’s expert witnesses have been at the crux of his defense strategy after Judge Arthur Engoron, in a partial summary judgment issued before the trial started, ruled that Trump had used financial statements with fraudulent valuations to get better loan terms from lenders.”
Notice that the report separates Deutsche Bank executives from the experts. It is because Deutsche Bank’s executives can only testify as to what happened with Trump — kind of like the guy who witnessed the car accident.
Trump had to hire an expert (and so did th) to testify as to whether Trump’s activities constituted fraud.
Regarding the figure — $2.5 million over the last 30 days — the figure represents the many hours for trial preparation and then a special rate for actual testimony.
But the hourly rates would be high because these expert witnesses likely make six figures a month, or more — and so they command a higher rate because their time is so valuable relative to what they would make at work.
There are very few people who could testify as to banking decisions based on loans for hundreds of millions of dollars.
There are even fewer who want to walk in and take the stand for Trump and support him in a fraud trial. Trump banked with Deutsche Bank because no American bank would loan to him. One would presume that the American banks would have a reason.
Trump also seemed to have a special relationship with Trump because Deutsche Bank was willing to loan to Trump, and they gave him super sweetheart deals.
It is probably also worth mentioning that Deutsche Bank has been heavily fined for laundering money for Russian Oligarchs.
You would have to pay an expert a lot of money to find an expert willing to say that all of this is normal and that Trump hasn’t committed fraud at some point along the way.
This column is based on original reporting by Peter Charalambous and Soo Rin Kim of ABC News
I can be reached at jasonmiciak@gmail.com and on Twitter @JasonMiciak.
Editor’s Note: This is an opinion piece reflecting the opinion of the author alone
