Judge Engoron rebukes Trump lawyers after prosecutors accuse them of "witness intimidation"

The judge presiding over Donald Trump's civil fraud case scolded the former president's lawyers Wednesday after they were accused of attempting to intimidate a witness during the trial. A day earlier, appraiser Douglas Larson harshly criticized the Trump Organization in his testimony, coming just short of alleging they contrived his advice about a capitalization rate on Trump's 40 Wall Street property to arrive at a $735 million valuation. The Trump Organization had claimed that company controller Jeffrey McConney had spoken to Larson over the phone about the cap rate, but during his Tuesday testimony Larson denied having the conversation.

Emails entered into evidence by the defense on Wednesday, however, showed Larson and McConney had electronically conferred about the cap rate issue two years earlier, according to The Messenger. Trump attorney Lazaro Fields then accused Larson of committing perjury in his previous testimony before Trump lawyer Chris Kise asked the court to advise Larson of his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, Law360 reporter Stewart Bishop reported.

Kise's request prompted New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron to have Larson escorted out of the room. Prosecutors then accused the defense of pulling a stunt to intimidate the witness. "This is witness intimidation, your honor," prosecutor Colleen Faherty told the judge. "This is a performance," another prosecutor added. "I've never seen anything like this." Kise denied the accusations, asserting that he takes the case "very seriously." Engoron interjected the back-and-forth to get the trial back on track. "Mr. Kise...my role is to get the witness to testify. If he perjured himself yesterday or he perjured himself today, I don't care. I just want him to testify," the judge said. "Get the witness back here as soon as possible."