Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump Expert SCREWS UP during Testimony, INCRIMINATES Trump

Episode Date: November 21, 2023

Another Trump “expert” blew it on the stand during the New York Attorney General civil fraud case. The insurance expert couldn’t keep his own report straight and forgot when he testified that he took the exact opposite position in his written report. Michael Popok of Legal AF reports on the judge completely discounting a day of testimony by Trump’s insurance Expert, because he got the most basic issues wrong. Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to https://TryMiracle.com/LEGALAF and use the code LEGALAF to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF. Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael Popok, legal a f expert witnesses, Donald Trump is trotted out in the civil fraud case have blown up in his face. Once again, let me just give a caveat here, a little bit of an explainer from a trial lawyer standpoint. When you bring in an expert witness, it's supposed to help your case, not self-destruct and melt down in front of the judge by taking a position completely contrary to another position that same expert took in his written report and not realize the contradiction.

Note the Trump side. Don't put on witnesses expert or otherwise who are going to be able to be completely contradicted in cross examination by the New York Attorney General. It's not going well for you. I mean, look, the whole defense is not going well. On the one side, you got Donald Trump, who's out, who's out in the out there and with his lawyers bashing the judge and the clerk and the trial setting and the criminal justice system and the attorney general and the democratic appointment and elections related to them all because things

are going terrible inside the courtroom where it matters. They know they've lost the Angkoran case. They know it. He already ruled six weeks ago, seven weeks ago, judge Angkoran. That's persistent fraud existed in the Trump organization. Now we're just trying to prove that it was done intentionally. And therefore he's allowed to take away, discourage, claw back, all of the money that Donald Trump made in violation of his duties, not to be a fraudster, okay?

For instance, the expert that was on the stand today to lead to a head smack by the judge said in trying to describe to the judge about the insurance process, he said, well, um, insurance companies, when they're making their decision, whether to ensure something don't rely on what they read in the media. Now, why was that important? Because there's a big issue in the case about Donald Trump trying to cook the books in order

to move up in the Forbes 400 magazine list of richest people in the world that it mattered to him or how his wealth was reported in different newspapers. And this guy was brought in Mr. David Miller, supposedly an expert on how insurance works. As if the judge needed that at this point has no idea the intent of Donald Trump criminally, which is the only issue left in the case. The judge already said, you want to put on these basically, you want to put on these irrelevant witnesses.

There's no jury. I'm happy to, you want to waste your time. I'm happy to listen to it. He literally said that. He had to, Todd Jr. went off for a day and a half about grand papi Trump and how shiny and beautiful all the buildings are that the Trump family owns, which is completely irrelevant to the issues that are at stake in the fraud case.

The judge was like, well, that was an interesting irrelevant diversion. Are we gonna get to real witnesses yet? And then here we have the parade of experts all on irrelevant topics. This guy actually said he denied from his vast experience that insurance underwriters, that's the people in the back room that make the ultimate decision, not the salesperson, as though whether the insurance company's going to go on the hook and actually extend the policy

or give the coverage. He said they don't rely. He's never seen them rely on media outlets, right? And particularly on media outlets before the Zurich insurance company, it's self-cited in their own underwriting papers, for instance, the fact that they relied on Forbes and USA today in a 2020 review of his policies. So the expert points out, he's never seen that before, except in his own report, in the cross-examination, the New York Attorney General pointed out a quote

from his own report that said, as follows, quote, some underwriters do not require financials and instead use their experience and other means such as Forbes and USA Today to satisfy their under underwriting needs. Okay, let's go back one thing. He says on the stand that he's never seen underwriters use things like Forbes and USA Today reporting about somebody's net worth and they're underwriting decision. But as report says, it often happens and expressly says Forbes and USA today. So he obviously didn't understand his own report.

He didn't write his own report. He didn't study the expert opinion in his own report. They're therefore self-destructing on the stand. It was so bad that judge Angkoran in his own comment as the trial of facts says, it seems completely inconsistent. What am I missing? The two statements that are being made here, right? And then they couldn't wait to kind of get him off the stand. And then, of course, the New York Attorney General looked to the judge and said, see, these people are all irrelevant.

First of all, they're internally inconsistent with their own positions. They don't even know their own opinions. They're just paid, you know what, being put up on the stand to try to waste time here on irrelevant issues that have no connection to the issues at large. And that's what they have been saying from the beginning. Why put on these experts, judge? They don't go to any issue that you have to decide is the trial effect to which, as I've reported earlier, the judge said, do you really want to die on this hill? Why don't we just all let it in? And then I'll give it the way it deserves rather than deny it and give them an appellate issue, an issue for appeal,

and then if I'm wrong, you got to come back here and try this case all over again. Why not just let it in. Did you know that your temperature at night can have one of the greatest impacts on your sleep quality? If you wake up too hot or too cold, I highly recommend you check out Miracle Mades bedsheets. Inspired by NASA, Miracle Mades uses silver infused fabrics and makes temperature regulating bedding so you can sleep at the perfect temperature all night long. Using silver infused fabrics inspired by NASA, Miracle Mades sheets are thermoregulating and designed to keep you at the perfect temperature all night long. So you get better sleep every night. These sheets

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piece towel set, and save over 40% off. Again, that's try Miracle.com slash legal AF to treat yourself, a friend, or loved one this holiday season. And that's what you're seeing, judges, arbitrators, and others. When there's no jury present present and they are the trial effect and they don't have to also be the gatekeeper for evidence to keep improper evidence or testimony away from a jury, a lay jury. It doesn't really understand these issues on a day-to-day basis.

I mean, there's smart people, but they don't understand the issues from a legal perspective. They will bend over backwards to let everything in. I can't tell you how many of my trials I've been involved with where the judge said, let it in, Mr. Popuck, I'll give it the appropriate weight. Let's not spend a lot of time trying to exclude it. It's just me, the judge here, happens all the time. I even had a very similar instance in one of my trials where an expert based on his own reports or writing self-destructed in front of a jury this time. And that won me the case. It was very easy. This particular expert,

like the one for Donald Trump, wrote a lot in journals. He probably didn't write those journal articles. It was probably written by some lower level expert or person that worked for him and he's just signed his name to the article. Just generally, I guess, okay, except one day you may be cross-examined with your own article. So I got a copy of the article I found it online and I had it in my hand. Now I didn't have to disclose it to the other side because it wasn't technical evidence in the case. It was being used for cross-examination or rebuttal purposes, but I held it in my hand like so he could see it. I had it

on a clipboard like this and he could see the article's title. And then I started reading from it without showing it to him. Would you agree, sir, with the following statement? This was right from his own writing. And he like, you could see his eyes getting wide. Would you agree one, an expert should do the following? Yes. Would you agree to that an expert retained an occasion to the following? Yes. And three. And he said, yes. And I walked him right into it. And at the end, I went back and said, now number one, you didn't do that. Did you in this case? No. Number two, you didn't do that in this case. Did you? No. Number three, you didn't do that in this case. Did you? No. And that list of things, sir, was actually from your own journal article published in this trade journal on this particular

issue about how to be an independent expert, right, sir? Yes. And I threw it down and I looked over at the jury and the jury for person, where the person I thought was the jury for person had a clipboard. He was writing everything down. He was a pilot for an airline. He was very, you know, methodical about his approach. You could just tell he just was writing everything down. And as soon as I went through that cross examination, he shut is, he shut his clipboard.

He like pushed it up against his chest, rolled his eyes and stopped taking another note. Uh, PS, we settled that case very quickly after that cross examination. That's what's going on for Donald Trump right now. I mean, if you're going to bring in experts, have them support your case, have them know your report, have them know their report inside and out. Don't have them get tripped up over their own statement where they're now saying the opposite in front of the judge because now you've lost all credibility. And this happened, you know, a day or so ago with the appraisal expert, they dragged this guy from the Midwest or out West who has no connection

to New York real estate or any of the real estate that he was testifying about to try to show that, you know, it's totally okay. The way they did the appraised value and they pumped connection to New York real estate or any of the real estate that he was testifying about to try to show that You know, it's totally okay the way they did the appraised value and they pumped up and cooked the books and that's totally okay And then they started walking Trump's expert through 40 Wall Street the major piece of property at the heart of the civil fraud And he didn't know a darn thing about it had never been shown the personal financial statements Didn't know about the representations. I mean, come on, guys, this is like easy stuff. You got to show your expert things in order for them to be prepared, testify or don't put them on the stand.

This just shows you they're flailing around inside the courtroom, the way they're flailing around outside the courtroom. To try to get, you know, dollars, support, and votes, but they're losing where it matters inside the wood paneling of the courtroom. The game is played on the court. It's not played outside to mix my sports metaphors. So we're going to continue to follow how that Trump case is really going, which is scheduled to conclude sometime in December before the next round of holidays, around Christmas time.

And we'll do it here on the Midas Touch Network on legal AF, the leading podcast at the intersection of law, politics, and justice. That's the only place we do it. Free subscribe to the Midas Touch Network. Help them get the two million. They're so darn close. They're a independent media network

with no outside investors. So the bigger they get, the more your voice is heard. So until my next legal AF, until my next hot take, this is Michael Popak reporting. Hey, MidasMiddi. Love this report. Continue the conversation by following us on Instagram, at MidasTouch, to keep up with the most important news of the day. What are you waiting for?

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