Trump Lawyer 'Shocked' He Had to Pay Millions for Money Monitoring

Former President Donald Trump's attorney said it is "shocking" that he's been forced by a Manhattan court to pay an independent monitor millions of dollars to "prove what he has said from the outset."

Trump lawyer Chris Kise slammed reports from former federal judge Barbara Jones, the court-appointed monitor overseeing Trump's businesses, in a Monday statement for having found issues with the former president's disclosures when she was tasked with identifying fraud.

"The Monitor's six reports never once mention financial reporting misconduct, suspicious activity, or suspected or actual fraud. No accounting or other governing standards are even cited in the January 26 Report much less violated," Kise told Newsweek in a statement.

"Instead, wandering beyond her mandate, it appears the Monitor has been paid $2.6 million to "uncover" seven (7) immaterial disclosure items, three (3) irrelevant inconsistencies and five (5) clerical errors. She even attempts to sensationalize President Trump's $40 million in tax payments by disingenuously characterizing them as a failure of disclosure. This is truly a joke."

Jones, who was appointed as monitor in November 2022, told a judge on Friday that while the Trump Organization was "cooperative" with her monitoring, Trump's financial information contained "incomplete" or "inconsistent" disclosures that contained "errors." The report came ahead of an expected ruling in the $270 million civil fraud trial against Trump, his company and two eldest sons.

In response, Kise said, "It is shocking that President Trump has been forced to pay millions for a Monitor to prove what he has said from the outset, namely, there is no financial reporting misconduct, no fraud and simply no basis for this abusive process to continue."

Judge Arthur Engoron, who is overseeing the case, has already found the defendant liable for over-inflating his assets and net worth to deceive banks, insurers and others. Trump has denied any wrongdoing.

Jones was appointed to her position at the request of New York Attorney General Letitia James, who argued one was needed to prevent the Trump Organization from continuing the alleged fraud. Engoron has closely watched Jones throughout the trial, using one of her reports to justify the dissolution of Trump's real estate company in September.

In a Monday letter to Engoron, Trump lawyer Clifford Roberts complained that Jones "was not appointed to identify math errors or otherwise sensationalize minor and inconsequential accounting discrepancies scattered throughout the financial reports of the over 400 companies comprising the Defendants' global enterprise."

Noting that Jones had repeatedly pointed out the Trump Organization's compliance with her efforts, Roberts argued that she was now finding errors in order to keep profiting off of her position as a monitor.

"The Monitor now twists immaterial accounting items into a narrative favoring her continued appointment, and thereby continued receipt of millions of dollars in excessive fees," the attorney wrote. "This represents an unacceptable level of disingenuity."

Update 01/29/24, 10:51 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.