📌 As always, I’ll do my best to share reports from multiple sources. Once I get going, please don’t expect replies.

🧵Thread will start HERE. 1/…

Via Erica Orden:

#Trump’s civil fraud trial continues today with the testimony of former Trump Organization CFO Allen #Weisselberg, expected to take the witness stand this morning. #legal #NewYork

2/ And we’re off. Via Klasfeld:

Questioning starts with biographical information about Weisselberg, including his education at Pace.

Solomon asks Weisselberg about his history with Fred Trump, beginning in 1973.

Weisselberg agrees when asked whether he's spent almost 50 years in real estate in New York.

3/ (Michael Cohen's testimony is now anticipated to begin on Tuesday.)

Solomon displays Weisselberg's separation agreement from the Trump Org into evidence.

It says Weisselberg was placed on leave as of Oct. 1, 2022.

He signed it on Jan. 9, 2023.

It was a $2M agreement.

Questioning turns to the valuation of Trump's triplex, a calculation that relied on the square footage.

(As those following the case know, Trump nearly tripled the size of that apartment.)

4/ In rapid-fire questioning, Solomon goes year by year, pressing Weisselberg about his assumptions of the square footage of the Trump Tower triplex.

Weisselberg testifies that he learned that his assumption was wrong.

Then, Weisselberg claims not to recall being put on notice that 30K sq ft number was wrong.

5/ Me: Ironically named document…

Document entered into evidence:

"First Amendment to the Declaration of Trump Tower Condominium"

The document discloses the triplex's actual square footage: 10,996.39 sq ft.

Trump's statements of financial condition claimed it was 30K sq feet.

The document was executed on Oct. 11, 1994.

6/ Solomon asks whether Weisselberg recalls a Forbes reporter reaching out to him for a press inquiry about Trump's net worth.

Weisselberg: "I don't recall."

The govt introduces an email from the reporter, dated Sept. 19, 2016.

Luisa Kroll, the magazine's then-assistant managing editor, asked Weisselberg about the value of various properties.

"We spent inordinate amounts of time going back and forth with them," Weisselberg said, referring to Forbes.

Eventually, he says, he stopped

7/ A year later in 2017, Forbes' Dan Alexander told Weisselberg that he believed the Trump Tower penthouse (triplex) was 10,996 sq. ft.

Solomon asked if Weisselberg ever told Forbes he believed the number was wrong.

"I don't recall," he claims.

Solomon notes that what's at the issue here is an "objective fact," i.e. the square footage of Trump's triplex.

Weisselberg: "I never focused on the triplex, to be honest with you. I looked at the bigger numbers of Jeff [McConney's] spreadsheets."

8/ Another email by then-Forbes reporter Noah Kirsch noted the discrepancy on the triplex's size.

"President Trump has told Forbes in the past that his penthouse occupies 33,000 square feet, comprising the entirety of floors 66-68 of Trump Tower," it notes.

But Kirsch added that the 1994 declaration is quite different.

"It shows President Trump’s apartment is 10,996.39 square feet," the email notes, asking whether the declaration is up to date.

9/ Okay, I'm back... Klasfeld, cont'd:

Weisselberg's asserted lack of memory here today is encyclopedic, to paraphrase a famous quote.

Technical problems.

Engoron quips:

"Let's take our 10-minute break over the next 15 minutes, as usual."

Coming out ahead so far in the questioning of Allen Weisselberg: Forbes

Forbes magazine, via different reporters and top editors, steadily pressed the Trump Organization on discrepancies over the triplex for years.

10/ Solomon shows Weisselberg this blunt Forbes headline:

“Donald Trump Has Been Lying About the Size of His Penthouse," seeking to enter it into evidence to show Weisselberg was on notice as of May 3, 2017. https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2017/05/03/donald-trump-has-been-lying-about-the-size-of-his-penthouse/?sh=5501697f1ef8

Solomon shows Weisselberg agreement he signed w Mazars, showing his obligations sharing data with the accounting firm:

"The Statement referred to above is fairly presented in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America."

11/ Asked if he was obligated to provide Mazars with contradictory information about valuations, Weisselberg starts launching into a monologue.

Solomon interrupts, noting it was a yes or no question.

👉🏼Then, Weisselberg says "yes."

12/ Weisselberg is shown this clause from his agreement with Mazars.

"We have not knowingly withheld from you any financial records or related data that in our judgment would be relevant to your compilation."

Throughout the case, Trump and his co-defendants have argued the appraisals not listed on financial statements weren't material.

Solomon notes that the clause in the tweet above doesn't have the word "material."

Weisselberg agrees.

13/ Klasfeld:

The lede so far:

"A months-long stint in Rikers Island didn't do much to jog the memory of Allen Weisselberg, the former Trump Organization chief financial officer who's now a key witness and co-defendant in the former president's civil fraud trial."

14/ NYAG's next piece of evidence:

The sale of properties located fewer than 0.5 miles from Mar-a-Lago.

The clipping is attached to an email from Weisselberg to Patrick Birney on Sept. 11, 2019:

The text states, "More info on the house purchase in PB," abbreviating Palm Beach.

Another email from Weisselberg to Birney says:

"For the SOFC," short for statements of financial condition.

15/ The clippings attached to the email show property sales near MAL, all sold or offered for sale for much less than the value of MAL listed on statements of financial condition.

Solomon suggests now would be a good time for a lunch recess.

Engoron: "Are you hungry? Is that what it is?"

(Laughter)

The joke being, the NYAG is about to move onto a different topic, and now's a good time for a break.

Granted.

Back at 2:15 p.m. ET.

16/ Klasfeld is back.

Continuing the afternoon session thread here:

In a running theme, both assistant AG Louis Solomon and Justice Arthur Engoron keep pressing Weisselberg to answer the questions in the format in which they're posed.

"It seems like a yes-or-no question," Engoron just said.

17/ Important wrinkle:

Via Lisa Rubin

👉🏼NEW: Weisselberg just admitted that until Trump became president, he gave Trump the statements of financial condition before they were finalized, that Trump had an opportunity to review it, and that he “periodically” received comments.

And after Trump became president, he gave them to DJT Jr. or Eric, but he cannot recall exactly who