SERGIO FLORES / AFP
This first trial against the former American president is the start of a legal marathon for the Republican favorite in the 2024 presidential election and could be costly for his business and real estate empire.
UNITED STATES – For his “name” and “reputation.” This Monday, October 2nd, the civil trial begins in New York against Donald Trump and two of his children, who are accused of having enormously inflated their real estate assets for years.
The 77-year-old former president had also announced on Sunday evening that he intended to be present this Monday at the opening arguments before the Supreme Court of the State of New York, where he is called as a witness in this threatening case of economic empire.
“I will go to court tomorrow morning to fight for my name and reputation,” the former real estate mogul said in a message posted late evening on the platform Truth Social, in which he referred to the New York attorney general as “the attorney general of “New York” is “corrupt” and the judge in charge of the case is “unbalanced.”
“The whole thing is a farce!!!! “, he also wrote.
And even if Donald Trump can’t be sentenced to prison in this case, the trial will provide a first taste of the legal events that are likely to disrupt his campaign for the Republican nomination.
In addition, the trial, which begins on Monday, suddenly gained importance last week when Judge Arthur Engoron, who is presiding over the trial, considered that “repeated fraud” had been established and that the New York State Attorney General’s Office had already presented evidence have that Donald Trump and his group’s employees “overstated” their assets between 812 million and 2.2 billion dollars between 2014 and 2021.
Trump Tower on borrowed time
As a result, this judge ordered the revocation of the New York State business licenses of Donald Trump and two of his children, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., executive vice presidents of the Trump Organization, as well as the forfeiture of the companies targeted by the complaint, so that these can be entrusted to the insolvency administrators.
If implemented, these sanctions would “deal a serious blow to Donald Trump’s ability to do business in New York state,” said Will Thomas, a business law professor at the University of Michigan.
Donald Trump, who made his fortune in real estate and casinos in the 1980s and promised to run the United States like his companies, then lost control of several of his group’s flagships, such as Trump Tower on 5th Avenue in Manhattan.
These properties are at the center of prosecutor Letitia James’ allegations: the area of the businessman’s triplex in Trump Tower was tripled and the building at 40 Wall Street was overvalued by $200 to $300 million in the statements.
In addition, his luxurious Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida and several Trump Organization golf courses also appear in the file. The prosecutor is also demanding recognition of further violations of financial law and a fine of $250 million.
Trump’s children at the top
Donald Trump has always brushed aside the accusations and multiplied the attacks against the prosecutor James, an elected African American Democrat whom he called “racist,” and Judge Engoron, whom he describes as “deranged.”
The trial promises to be technical, with dozens of witnesses expected, including three of the Trump children, Eric, Donald Jr. and Ivanka, who were originally the subject of the lawsuit but were ultimately not prosecuted, or the Trump Organization’s former finance director, Allen Weisselberg. who was in prison after pleading guilty to tax fraud in another case against the group.
The witnesses also include Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, who has become one of his archenemies, as well as employees of lending banks or the accounting firm Mazars, which decided in 2021 to no longer work with the Trump Organization.
Donald Trump has been indicted in four separate cases, which have so far done little to dent his popularity among the Republican base. In particular, he will have to stand trial in federal court in Washington from March 4th for attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election won by Joe Biden.
He is subsequently tried by the New York State judiciary for accounting fraud and, after leaving the presidency, is sent to Florida for negligent handling of confidential documents.
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