Trump appears for civil fraud trial

Former US president Donald Trump was in a New York City courtroom Monday for the start of a civil fraud trial that could decide the fate of his flagship New York properties, including the Trump Tower, and limit his family's ability to do business in New York.

Trump wasn't required to be in the courtroom for the nonjury trial, but said he attended so he could "watch this witch hunt myself'' and that he will return over the course of the proceedings.

"I'll be seeing a lot of you," he told reporters, "because this is a horrible thing that's happening to this country." He called the civil trial the "single greatest witch hunt of all time".

Before and after leaving the courtroom, in comments to reporters Trump, railed against presiding state Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron, who ruled last week that Trump and his co-defendants were liable for fraud for overvaluing their properties.

He also attacked New York Attorney General Letitia James, who filed the lawsuit accusing Trump of fraudulently inflating his assets by billions of dollars to secure favorable loan terms from banks.

Trump dismissed Engoron as a "rogue judge'', a "rat" and an "operative" in a brief appearance in front of reporters. He called James, who is black, a "racist'', a "horror show'' and a "radical-left attorney general".

Media reports said that Trump looked away from James as he passed her on the way into court. He was followed soon after by his son, Eric Trump, who addressed James and shook her hand.

The current nonjury trial concerns six remaining claims in the lawsuit, including allegations of conspiracy, insurance fraud and falsifying business records.

Trump has denied all wrongdoing, and his attorneys have described him as a "master of finding value where others do not", arguing that his alleged inflated valuations were a product of his business skill.

If the judge's initial ruling of last week is upheld on appeal, it could force Trump to give up New York properties such as Trump Tower, a mixed-use skyscraper on Fifth Avenue; a Wall Street office building; golf courses; and a suburban estate.

James is seeking to recover $250 million in alleged ill-gotten gains. She wants to prohibit Trump and the Trump Organization from entering any New York state commercial real estate deals for the next five years and to bar them from applying for loans from any New York bank during that same period.

She also wants to permanently prevent Trump and his adult sons from running any New York companies.

Prosecutors on Monday called their first witness to the stand, Donald Bender, a former accountant at Mazars USA, the firm that for years handled Trump's taxes. He testified at length about his involvement in compiling Trump's statements of financial condition between 2011 and 2020, which he described as "balance [sheets] of Mr. Trump's assets and liabilities". Bender said the standards and inputs for the statements were largely decided by Trump Organization executives.

At the end of the trial's first day, Trump left claiming he had scored a victory, pointing to comments that he viewed as the judge coming around to the defense view that most of the suit's allegations are too old.

The judge suggested that testimony about Trump's 2011 financial statement was beyond the legal time limit.

Trump's campaign immediately began fundraising off his appearance.

Most of the time that Trump was in the courtroom, media reports said he watched intently and sat sternly with his arms crossed at the defense table but shook his head and scowled at a presentation by a lawyer for the attorney general. He nodded in agreement when a lawyer for him attacked James as politically motivated.

Agencies contributed to this story.