Trump questioned about the value of Mar-a-Lago
From CNN's Lauren del Valle, Kara Scannell and Jeremy Herb in New York
Donald Trump says he believes Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort, is worth between $1 billion and $1.5 billion.
"You believe that as of today Mar-a-Lago is worth $1.5 billion?" asked Kevin Wallace of the New York attorney general's office. "I think between a billion and a billion-five," Trump responded.
The valuation of Mar-a-Lago has been one of Trump's complaints about the judge in the trial, after the judge cited a Florida tax appraisal of $18 million for the property in his decision finding Trump, his adult sons and his company committed “persistent and repeated” fraud.
Wallace asked Trump if he approved of valuing Mar-a-Lago as if it would be sold to an individual as a resident. “Did I approve it on this? I don’t know,” Trump said.
Trump replied, “I don’t remember that, no” when asked if he explicitly told former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg or former Trump Organization executive Jeff McConney to value the property that way.
Wallace confronted Trump with a 2002 deed of development rights that shows Trump deeded away his right to use the property as anything other than a social club.
Trump then gave a long aside about Mar-a-Lago when Wallace asked him about not being able to use it as anything but a social club.
"I don’t mind leaving it as a club. In fact, if somebody wanted it, smartest thing to do, have a club and have one member and that would be the member that lives in the club. But it’s much more valuable — and we’ll show that in two weeks or five weeks or nine weeks or whenever this thing goes — that its biggest value is using it as a club," Trump said.
Wallace showed Trump a 2003 article in which the former president told a reporter Mar-A-Lago will always be a club.
“I think that was said with bravado more than legal intent," Trump said on the stand.
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