A tax law expert, Lee-Ford Tritt told the Times that the theme he saw throughout Trump’s inheritance tax filings was that the family played with valuations in extreme ways.

When University of Florida law professor Lee-Ford Tritt appeared on CNN with Anderson Cooper on Tuesday, his cell phone flooded with emails and texts.

Former and current UF law students who tuned into the prime time news show sent along their support after watching one of their professors on screen.

“When people always ask me about UF, I always say the students are so amazing,” Tritt said. “They are such scrappers.”

Tritt appeared on CNN to discuss being quoted extensively in a New York Times investigative story that suggests President Donald Trump — and other members of his family — dodged inheritance and gift taxes in building his empire. A tax law expert, Tritt told the Times that the theme he saw throughout Trump’s inheritance tax filings was that the family played with valuations in extreme ways.

Tritt said the Times contacted him after considering other practicing trust and estate lawyers who have high-net worth clients.

“They decided that maybe an academic was the way to go on this as opposed to a practicing attorney,” Tritt said. “But I had a lot of practicing experience in New York when I was a New York lawyer dealing with high-net worth clients.”

Before conducting the interview, Tritt said he was heavily vetted, asked by reporters and editors about his political affiliation and if he had contributed to either Hillary Clinton or Trump’s campaign. He spent a day and a half at the Times’ offices in New York City examining documents and answering questions.

“I was amazed at just how thorough of an investigation it was, just hundreds of thousands of pages of documents and they had interviewed so many people and done so much research,” Tritt said.

Tritt said reporters and editors from the Times had a good understanding of the documents.

“They needed some background on how tax things worked,” Tritt said. “I think that’s where my teaching helped. I could explain to them some tax issues and how this all worked. We talked about things. They were very professional. They didn’t lead me. They didn’t try to goad me into a certain way. They just wanted my honest opinion on things. Some things I told them I didn’t think was a big deal, but I think they thought were a bigger deal. I think some of it was legal, that a lot of high-net worth clients would do. Other things I was pretty amazed about.”

Tritt spent eight years as a trust and estate lawyer in New York City before joining the UF College of Law’s faculty in 2005. He was named Levin College of Law professor of the year for five straight years from 2008-09 through 2012-13. As a member of the graduate tax faculty at UF, Tritt is frequently cited as an authority on estate tax law in newspapers and magazines throughout the country.

“Levin has afforded me some wonderful opportunities,” Tritt said. “I’ve been very blessed. I’ve had some wonderful mentors in private life when I was a private lawyer and UF has given me a wonderful platform to build my career.”