The NY Times is live-reporting Trump’s testimony.

Trump’s acknowledgement of some involvement in assembling the documents in question can’t be stressed enough. The modus operandi of Trump and most around him is to lay the blame at staff’s feet, or consultants’ feet or lawyers’ feet.

Trump is being asked about why he decided to drop the value of Seven Springs, one of his properties in Westchester County, N.Y., on a financial statement. “I thought it was high,” Trump says, yet again admitting his involvement in the process.

Trump appears not to realize that, because here the value was lowered, these admissions of his involvement in manipulating the financial statements are damning.

But it was good manipulating. Surely he should get points for that.

Trump was just asked his involvement in the 2021 financial statement. He tried to answer saying that he was busy with the presidency, focused on “China, Russia and keeping our country safe.”

Wallace, the state lawyer, reminded him that he was not president in 2021.

Picky picky picky.

Trump is asked how big his triplex in Trump Tower is. He says that he wouldn’t know, except for the trial, but that it’s about 11,000 feet. That’s accurate, but then he started adding thousands, saying it may be 12,000 or 13,000 feet. This is Trump’s problem in a nutshell: He exaggerates.

Hahahahaha and he even does it in court.

At times, the late morning testimony has felt like travel brochure for Trump properties. When it happens, people around me sitting in the courtroom chuckle.

Trump is mak[ing] a long ode to Aberdeen, calling it an “artistic expression,” and the greatest golf course ever built. The judge is frowning but again says nothing.

Justice Engoron finally loses patience and breaks in as Trump is calling Aberdeen, Scotland, where he has a golf club, the oil capital of Europe. “Irrelevant, irrelevant. Answer the question,” the judge says.

Trump is asked about what Wallace characterizes as an inaccuracy in a 2014 statement of financial condition. Trump ducks the question. And finally, the judge explains why he hasn’t been interrupting since the break: He is following Wallace’s lead, he says, and Wallace seems to be fine with Trump’s rambling. As we’ve noted, that rambling is helping the attorney general.

To be continued.