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By Katherine Fung

Senior Writer

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Former President Donald Trump was caught in a lie during his Monday testimony, telling prosecutors he was too "busy in the White House" to be involved in the preparing of his 2021 financial statements, even though he had already been succeeded by Joe Biden.

Asked about whether he was involved in the 2021 valuations of his properties, Trump defended himself by telling prosecutor Kevin Wallace, "I was so busy in the White House. My threshold was China, Russia, and keeping our country safe."

Wallace followed up by asking, "Just to clarify, you weren't president in 2021, correct?" to which Trump replied, "No, I wasn't."

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Trump took the stand in the $250 million civil fraud trial in New York on Monday, following the testimonies of his two eldest sons, who appeared as witnesses last week. Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization are co-defendants in the civil case brought by New York Attorney Letitia James, who is seeking to bar the Trump family from ever running business in the state again.

Newsweek reached out to the Trump campaign via email for comment.

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Judge Arthur Engoron already found Trump liable of "persistent and repeated" fraud before the trial began last month. The trial will now determine the penalties the Trump family will have to pay for the financial fraud and address the other six claims, including falsifying business records, issuing false financial statements, insurance fraud, and conspiracy.

Former federal prosecutor Michael McAuliffe called Trump's comments that put him in the White House in 2021 "the perfect––really paradigm––example of Trump saying whatever he wants in the second as a retort."

"It's less about Trump being subject to perjury charges than the judge in the case simply concluding that Trump's statements––all of them––aren't credible," McAuliffe told Newsweek. "It is entirely foreseeable that a judge or juror in the legal proceedings coming up will conclude the same."

On Monday, Trump was combative on the stand, launching into rants against James and Engoron and evading questions from prosecutors. The former president said the attorney general should "be ashamed of herself" for bringing a "political witch hunt" against him while attacking Engoron for his ruling before the trial, saying, "The fraud is on the court, not on me."

Trump's clash with Engoron prompted the judge to repeatedly admonish the former president for his failure to respond to questioning and to even ask Trump's attorneys, "I beseech you to control him if you can."

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