The family takes turns taking the helm. Donald Trump Jr., the Republican billionaire’s first child to testify in his New York civil trial over massive financial fraud, assured the court on Wednesday that he had not delved into the financial documents at the center of the accusation.
The hearing of the eldest son of the former American president opened a parade of the family clan, which continues with Eric Trump, then Donald Trump himself and Ivanka Trump, who, however, appealed not to testify.
The executive vice president of the Trump Organization, Donald Trump Jr., 45, like his father and his younger brother Eric, is accused by the Attorney General of the State of New York, Letitia James, of inflating the figures to the tune of billions of dollars The group was expanded in the 2010s in order to obtain better loans from banks and more favorable insurance conditions.
Wearing a dark blue suit, light shirt and pink tie, Donald Trump Jr. confirmed his role at the helm of the Trump Organization, a host of companies that manage high-rise residential and office buildings, luxury hotels and golf courses around the world.
Who has held the reins of the group since Donald Trump entered the White House in January 2017, asked Attorney General Colleen Faherty? “A combination of me, my brother (Eric) and Allen Weisselberg,” the former finance director, who was sentenced to prison in 2022 for tax fraud, answered Donald Trump Jr. very relaxed.
“Leave my children”
However, he also presented himself as unfamiliar with accounting calculations. The eldest son is blamed by prosecutors for Donald Trump’s annual financial returns since 2016, a kind of photo of his assets at the center of the indictment, and said he trusted their accounting firm Mazars.
“I was not involved in the creation” of these documents, “the accountants worked on them, that’s what we pay them for,” he assured. Without convincing Attorney General Letitia James. “Trump Jr. has long been implicated in his family’s fraudulent business activities,” she wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
The hearing was largely held in a cordial atmosphere, far from the vicious attacks that Trump, father and son, usually makes against the judiciary.
“Leave my children alone, Engoron. “You are a disgrace to the judicial profession,” Donald Trump Sr. posted overnight on his Truth Social social network, addressing Judge Arthur Engoron, who is presiding over the trial and has already fined him $15,000 he was taken to his clerk.
Donald Trump, 77, is scheduled to be questioned on Monday, almost a year before the 2024 presidential election in which he hopes to return to the leadership of the United States. The defense asserts that the valuations of the group’s assets, such as Trump Tower and Wall Street Building 40, were subjective but honest and the banks lost nothing.
“Repeated scams”
But according to Michiel McCarty, head of the investment bank MM Dillon & Co., who spoke as an expert on Wednesday, lending banks like Deutsche Bank could have resorted to higher interest rates if the outlook was less rosy.
He examined four loans to finance projects around a golf course in Florida, two luxury hotels in Washington and Chicago and 40 Wall Street and estimated interest losses between 2014 and 2023 at $168 million. A calculation disputed by the defense.
Donald Trump was not in court on Wednesday. Since the beginning of the trial, as in the four other cases in which he is criminally charged, he has portrayed himself as the victim of a legal intrigue, particularly over an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
If he doesn’t risk prison time in this civil case, the case could result in him losing control of some of his real estate assets, in addition to a $250 million fine and a ban from running companies in New York.
Even before debates began on October 2, Judge Engoron estimated that the attorney general’s office had presented “conclusive evidence that the defendants overstated assets by “812 million (to) $2.2 billion,” depending on the year, between 2014 and 2021 .
Due to the “repeated fraud” he ordered the companies to be liquidated, a real legal blow, but his decision was stayed on appeal. The focus of the lawsuit is further violations of financial laws and the amount of the fine.