Impeachment talk at Trump Org. trial: Did witness misspeak?

NEW YORK (AP) — There was talk of impeachment Monday at the Trump Organization’s criminal tax fraud trial — not former President Donald Trump's, which happened twice — but whether lawyers for his company were angling to impeach their own witness, longtime Trump accountant Donald Bender.

Defense lawyer Susan Necheles said Bender, a partner at Mazars USA LLP who spent years overseeing tax returns for Trump’s hundreds of entities, “surprised” her when he testified that he didn’t actually do much work on the company’s tax returns.

Bender indicated he delegated some work to other firm employees.

“That answer surprised me because it’s just not true,” Necheles said during a court conference held after Bender and the jury left the courtroom for a lunch break.

Necheles was seeking permission to confront Bender with records showing he spent more time working on tax returns for the Trump Corporation, the company’s main subsidiary, than he led on. But the defense lawyer stopped short of saying she wanted to undermine his credibility in front of jurors.

“I don’t want to impeach the witness. I don’t want to call him a liar,” Necheles said. “That’s impeaching the witness.”

Judge Juan Manuel Merchan, already annoyed with the defense because it filed a court motion late Sunday night, appeared reluctant to grant Necheles’ request, instructing her to refine her argument over lunch.

“I believe I’ve bent over backward to allow both defendants to prepare a defense,” Merchan said, referring to the Trump Corporation and the other charged subsidiary, Trump Corp. and Trump Payroll Corp. As a gatekeeper, Merchan said, “I don’t believe that means I have to let you to throw everything at the jury and see what sticks.”

The Trump Organization, the...