Donald Trump Makes Chicago Judge Impatient
By Chuck Sudo in News on May 15, 2013 8:30PM
Photo credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images
Reality television host and failed casino owner Donald Trump is in Chicago testifying in a lawsuit brought against him by a woman who bought into one of his condos at his eponymously named Chicago skyscraper and regretted doing so. If admonishments in court by Judge Amy St. Eve are an indication, the short-fingered vulgarian can’t wait to get back to New York City.
Trump is accused in a lawsuit filed by 87-year-old Jacqueline Goldberg of breach of contract over two hotel condos she attempted to purchase in Trump Tower. Goldberg claims Trump Tower executives reneged on a deal allowing buyers in the project to participate in profit-sharing plans related to the hotel’s grand ballroom and other “common elements” of the development. When Goldberg tried to back out of the deal, they kept her deposit—$500,000.
Much of the drama at the trial has focused on the bickering between Trump and Goldberg’s attorney, Shelly Kulwin. St. Eve finally had enough of the two after three days of testimony, stopped the trial and asked Trump and Kulwin to “take a deep breath.”
Telling the men they’d been “dancing around and boxing with each other for 45 minutes,” as they verbally sparred during the third day of a civil trial, St. Eve admonished them, “This is not a boxing ring!”“You’ve got to stop it,” she said. “Do you think the jury likes this?
“If you think the jury likes it, I can assure you they don’t — you’re wasting their time.”
St. Eve asked Kulwin to ask better questions while Trump showed a rare moment of humility and said he’d listen more carefully to the questions. So it’s only a matter of time before Trump takes to his Twitter feed to add Kulwin, Goldberg and St. Eve to the list of people he’s branded as “losers.”
Before St. Eve regained control of her courtroom, Trump was in rare form, boasting about the people who work for him, describing himself as a hand-off manager type and what an amazing addition Trump Tower is to the city skyline.
"I don't want to be braggadocios," he said, "I build great buildings."--snip--
"The primary thing is to build a great building," Trump told jurors, leaning into a microphone and speaking calmly and steadily. "You can't fool people."
Kulwin tried repeatedly to shoot holes in Trump's testimony, calling it "an interesting infomercial" and that Trump was "giving a speech" on the witness stand
Speaking outside the courtroom this afternoon, Trump was more candid. “This is a disgrace,” Trump said in the lobby of Dirksen U.S. Courthouse. “She’s trying to rip me off. She really is. She’s trying to rip me off. She concocted the whole situation.”
UPDATE 7 p.m.: According to the Sun-Times, Trump told cameras outside the courtroom that the 87-year-old woman is trying to rip him off, adding, “Nobody that I’ve ever seen has ever played the age card better than her ... She knows everything that’s going on and it’s really disgraceful.”