Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Image source, Getty Images

Prosecutors are back to asking Trump about his Seven Springs property in Westchester, New York.

Trump admits that he believed the property to be overvalued in one financial statement and said he directed accountants to lower the value after the fact.

“I thought it was high," he says. But, he claims once again, "the value of these statements is not that important”.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Trump is before a judge, not a rally full of supporters, but he's approaching it with the same attitude.

His posture remains in his typical slouch but his expression is haughty, if not a little bored.

He grows most animated when he's launching into riffs about the value of his real estate - much higher than the documents say, he claims - and making political attacks on the judge and prosecutors.

At one point, when his lawyers fought with Judge Engoron about their client's refusal to respond directly to questions, Trump appeared to have the slightest smile on his face.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Trump has returned to the stand after our 15 minute break.

Trump turns his legal problems into political pointspublished at 16:12 Greenwich Mean Time 6 November 2023

16:12 GMT 6 November 2023

Sarah Smith
North America Editor

Donald Trump made history when he took the stand in court as a defendant today, the first president to do so in more than 100 years.

It’s probably even more significant that Trump is appearing in court as a leading presidential candidate for the 2024 election - one who is having to combine court appearances with campaign events and is turning his legal problems into political plus points.

One year away from the next presidential election, polling this weekend from the New York Times and Siena College showed Donald Trump with a clear lead over President Joe Biden in key battleground states.

When he has shown up at this civil trial in recent days, he has sought to score political points by denouncing the prosecution as a “witch hunt” and attacking the judge as a partisan and a “wacko”.

On the stand he may need to take a more considered approach. There is no jury in the courtroom for the former president to appeal to, and the judge alone will decide the outcome of this case.

Chloe Kim
Reporting from court

Before court took a break, Trump was saying he accepted the financial statements others prepared and he did not tell anyone to "make it higher or make it lower".

Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer, testified earlier in this trial saying he had helped come up with "whatever number Trump told us to" on real estate assets.

Trump has then gone on to discuss the Seven Springs property in New York. It also came up several times during Eric and Donald Jr's testimonies.

Trump says this property is the "equivalent" of Mar-a-Lago but in New York, saying it is 213 acres and "magnificent".

The judge has called for a 15 minute break after a very busy opening session.

We're not sure if Donald Trump will emerge and give a statement to the waiting media, but we have a livestream outside the courtroom at the top of this page if he does.

You can click the Play button to watch along.

Chloe Kim
Reporting from court

Donald Trump's testimony is a real back-and-forth so far.

"This is a very unfair trial," Trump just said in response to a dispute between his counsel and the judge.

"I hope the public is watching."

There are no cameras in the courtroom, but there are a lot of journalists here watching.

Judge Engoron raises his voice and tells Trump's lawyer Alina Habba to sit down.

He says Trump is here to answer the questions.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Trump is now being asked whether the valuations of a number of his properties are accurate.

Instead of answering yes or no, Trump is giving speeches about how and why he invested in various properties.

Again the judge asks Trump's legal team to stop the speeches.

"I beseech you to control him if you can. If you can't, I will," Judge Engoron says.

Chloe Kim
Reporting from court

Image source, Reuters

Trump is saying his iconic Trump Tower on 57th and 5th Avenue is probably the best location in New York - next to Tiffany and Co and IBM.

He says it would be worth a lot if either of those companies wanted to expand, but he does not want to sell. He tells the court they would love to be the owners of that site.

"I think it's gotten more valuable," he says.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Image source, Reuters

Sparks continue to fly between New York Judge Arthur Engoron and the former president, who keeps giving several minute responses to questions.

“I’m considering drawing negative inference from any question that might be asked," Engoron says.

Trump's attorney proposes a break to reset, which the court does not take.

Image source, Reuters

Trump is in court with his usual legal team - Christopher Kise (on the left in the photograph above), Alina Habba (next to Trump), and Clifford Robert.

He is also joined by criminal defence attorneys Susan Necheles and Todd Blanche and campaign team members Stephen Cheung and Jason Miller.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

New York Judge Arthur Engoron is growing frustrated with Trump's lengthy responses.

He has just asked Trump's attorneys: "Can you control your client?"

"Maybe you should have a talk with him right now," he says.

The tense exchange came after a question about company valuations. Trump's attorneys accuse prosecutors of asking questions that are too broad.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Image source, Getty Images

The attorney general's office has claimed that Trump, his employees, and his companies fraudulently inflated the value of his properties in order to secure more favourable loans.

On the stand, Trump is saying the opposite: That his properties were actually undervalued.

He claims his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, was worth far more than financial documents said, as well as some of his golf courses. He also says that his brand made the value of his assets even higher than he'd claimed.

Trump has been braggadocious about his properties throughout his career; it was a tactic that helped build his reputation as a real estate tycoon.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

We're only 15 minutes into testimony, but already Donald Trump is following the same strategy as his adult sons when they testified at trial last week.

As prosecutors quiz him on how he prepared his financial statements, he shifts blame to company accountants.

“All I did was authorise and give people whatever was necessary for the accountants to do the statement," he says.

Donald Jr and Eric frequently used this same response to questioning.

Chloe Kim
Reporting from court

Donald Trump has Judge Arthur Engoron in his sights.

He tells the court: "I’m sure the judge will rule against me because he always rules against me".

"You can attack me, whatever you want, just answer the questions," Judge Engoron tells the former president.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

New York Judge Arthur Engoron has just asked Trump to stop giving speeches at the stand.

"Please, just answer the questions, no speeches. Some of your answers have not been responsive to the questions," he says.

These remarks come after Trump gave lengthy statements about whether banks pay attention to financial statements.

"We’ll explore this as this trial goes along... this crazy trial goes along," Trump says.

Kayla Epstein
in the courtroom

Donald Trump is asked by the attorney general's office what was happening around July 2021, when Trump put his son Donald Trump Jr in charge of his trust.

Trump responded with his first bit of bombast for the day.

“You and about every other Democrat district attorney... US attorneys etc were coming after me from 15 different sides. All democrats, all Trump haters, all cases that are not good, inappropriate and not good. Weaponisation, they call it.”

This is the sort of language Trump has been using outside the courtroom, on Truth Social and at campaign rallies.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

The New York Attorney General's team is asking Trump about former Trump Organization chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg.

Weisselberg served time for tax fraud related to his work at the Trump family business.

Trump says Weisselberg was "really good at what he did".

"We really liked him a lot," he says.

Asked if he trusted Weisselberg, he says "I did".

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

There was an open question, that my colleague Nada Tawfik discussed earlier, about whether Trump would invoke his Fifth Amendment rights and decline to answer questions.

But so far, he's answering every question from prosecutors. We're very early into testimony though, so we'll see if he invokes the 5th later on.

The Fifth Amendment to the US constitution states that no individual can be "compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself".

For more information on what pleading the fifth means, check out this post from earlier.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

We’re starting with prosecutors asking the former president about his company and where its assets are held, including in a Donald J Trump trust.