In a deposition taken in July, Bartov disclosed that he was being paid $1,350 an hour to work on the case. In court, he said he had now worked about 650 hours on the case, which would total $877,500.
Questioned by lawyers for New York’s attorney general, Bartov said the money had come from the Trump Organization and the former president’s political action committee, Save America.
Hope he got his fee upfront
Whatever he got as retainer is all he is going to get.
A Trump never pays his debts
When the witnesses are paid more than the lawyers to lie- we have a fucking problem.
It’s so common. I’ve watched orthopedists tell defense attorneys that having them testify will cost more than a settlement, but they go ahead. And I get it, you can’t just settle every case because it’s cheaper, but it’s nuts to me. Fucking insurance.
Not a lawyer. Isn’t it a crime for a PAC to pay money in a civil trial?
That’s exactly why I pulled that part of the article, I was hoping someone could answer that.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/can-trump-use-political-donations-pay-legal-defense-2023-08-01/
The law is tricky. It’s not explicitly against the law, as per the article.
Why would it be? PACs can do pretty much anything with their money.
Turns out there are all kinds of PACs.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/can-trump-use-political-donations-pay-legal-defense-2023-08-01/
Experts get paid for their contributions. This is an extremely high profile case that could have big ramifications for his career. Makes sense he would be paid a lot.
The issue is that he was making up a bunch of crazy stuff that doesn’t follow accepted practices at all, not that he was paid.
Making stuff up in court sounds like a bad idea
Also at issue: maga people who donate to Trump think experts are “dumb” so they might see this a huge waste of their money.
Fortunately, they will never hear this so their peace of mind is assured.
900k is more than a lot.
It’s for 650 hours which is like half a year of full time work. And it’s short term work which always pays more. It’s “more than a lot” to normal people but not really for specialized lawyers at the top of their field.
That’s much close to a quarter year of full time work, but I get your point
That’s $1.8M a year. If you worked for an average large US company, you’d have to be a senior executive to get that. Yes, it’s short term, but your executive comp would probably be at least half tied up in benefits you don’t have ready access to: stock options with multi-year vesting, bonuses tied to company performance, etc. Cash salary is more valuable, almost always, regardless of how HR tries to spin it.
That’s not just a lot of money, it’s a shit-ton of money.
First of all this is what he claimed. I doubt seriously he spent this much time, but for shits and giggles if he did that works out to be like $1,500 an hour. Nobody is worth that.
Must be from the esteemed accounting firm of Dewy, Cheetum and Howe.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
An accounting expert who came to Donald Trump’s defense in his $250m fraud has racked up nearly $900,000 in fees for his testimony, a court heard on Friday.
New York University Stern School of Business research professor Eli Bartov testified on Thursday that he had found “no evidence here of concealment” in his review of the financial statements at the heart of the case.
In a deposition taken in July, Bartov disclosed that he was being paid $1,350 an hour to work on the case.
According to ABC News, the prosecution’s sole expert witness, Michiel McCarty, chairman and chief executive at the investment bank MM Dillon & Co, was paid about $350,000 for his testimony.
Questioned by lawyers for New York’s attorney general, Bartov said the money had come from the Trump Organization and the former president’s political action committee, Save America.
Trump, his older sons and executives at his company are charged with exaggerating the value of their assets in order to obtain more favorable loans.
The original article contains 279 words, the summary contains 167 words. Saved 40%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!