'Trump team bets on accountants in fraud lawsuit.'

In a civil fraud trial that threatens the former US president's real estate empire, his lawyers have ordered a close investigation into the role of outside accounting firm Mazars USA LLP in preparing financial statements that are the basis of a lawsuit by New York State Attorney General Letitia James. This comes after Donald Trump, his sons and his lawyers accused his accountants of inconsistencies in the financial statements.

One accounting expert, Jason Flemmons, a former deputy chief accountant at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, who took the witness stand, raised doubts about some of Mazars USA LLP's practices and challenged the testimony of Donald Bender, a former''a partner at that firm who has worked on Trump's financial statements for years. Bender said on Oct. 3 that he had asked a Trump Organization executive to provide estimates of the value of all of the company's assets, not just those used for the financial statements, and was surprised when he later learned that some had not been provided.

Flemmons said there was "no professional basis" for Bender's assertion because such integrity is not required by professional standards. The preparation of financial statements requires far less attention than a rigorous accounting audit, and requesting estimates of value would be highly unusual and wholly inconsistent with''stopped cooperating with Trump last year and said his financial records "can no longer be considered reliable" after Letitia James raised concerns about their accuracy.

The Flemmons examination came on the second day of a defense in which Trump's attorneys seek to rebut the attorney general's claims that the Republican Party's leading candidate for the 2024 election, his company and top executives manipulated the value of his assets to make him look richer and his estate more successful.

Letitia James, who is a Democrat, claims Trump, his company and top executives exaggerated his wealth by billions of dollars in financial reports, exaggerating''real estate values. The documents were used to obtain loans and enter into transactions with banks, insurers and others. James is seeking the return of more than $300 million she believes was illegally obtained and an injunction barring the defendants from doing business in New York.

Before the trial began, Judge Arthur Engoron found that Trump and the other defendants committed fraud by exaggerating his net worth and asset value in financial statements. The judge imposed a sentence that could strip Trump of some of his known properties, though the appeals court has so far allowed them to remain under his control.

"That essentially means the user has to be on guard," Flemmons said. Trump argues that, if anything, his financial statements underestimated the value of his assets. On the witness stand last week, he reiterated his belief that his Florida Mar-a-Lago estate is worth as much as $1.5 billion, twice the maximum valuation in his financial statements.

A second expert, real estate developer and Trump friend Steven Witkoff, also supported Trump's claim that his Doral golf resort in Florida is significantly undervalued in his financial statements.

The judge is critical''took that argument to heart and shut it down. Witkoff, who will host a fundraiser for Trump next month, said developers evaluate their properties based on their potential, such as building condos on a golf course or turning an office building into apartments, rather than their current condition.

Donald Trump Jr, executive vice president of the Trump Organization, said Nov. 1 that he approved the reports as a trustee of his father's trust but left the job to accountants and former chief financial officer Allen Weiselberg. His brother Eric gave a similar testimony on Nov. 3, saying he relied on "one of the largest accounting firms in the country" to authenticate the financial statements. Trump himself'