Donald Trump Jr., then Eric Trump, Donald Trump’s two sons accused with him in the civil trial of massive financial fraud cases that threaten the family empire, tried to unite in court Thursday in the face of the prosecution’s rolling questions.
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One by one, the eldest Donald Jr., 45 years old, then the youngest Eric, 39 years old, heard at the bar Thursday, adopted the same line of defense: They didn’t care about the financial statements at the heart of the trial, a task , which is left to the accountants.
Donald Trump Sr. and his two sons are accused by the New York attorney general’s office as directors of the Trump Organization of increasing the value of the group’s assets by billions of dollars in the 2010s by obtaining cheaper loans from banks and better insurance terms.
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Looking impeccably like his older brother, in a sharp suit and silver-blue tie, Eric Trump came to the bar on Thursday and immediately assured that he had “not worked” on Donald Trump’s annual financial statements, a kind of photos of his assets. He lists the value of his Real estate, such as the Trump Tower and the 40 Wall Street skyscraper in New York, the “Seven Springs” residence in its large suburbs and even golf courses.
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These documents are crucial to the prosecution, whose assets were colossally inflated into billions of dollars to seduce financial partners.
Attorney General’s representative Andrew Amer then shows several documents displayed on the court screen, including an email received by Eric Trump on August 23, 2013: A senior staffer speaks to him on the “notes.” “Mr. Trump “at annual financial statements” and asks him for details.
Under the fire of questions, Eric Trump loses his patience a little and his previously warm voice rises: “We are a huge group in real estate, of course there are financial statements,” cowardly – he.
“Fact Check”
“I don’t remember,” “I trusted the accountants,” Donald Trump Jr. also repeated, confronted with a long series of financial documents that he, as executive vice president of the Trump Organization, should have validated or on which his signature appears.
Among them, the representative of the Attorney General’s Office, Colleen Faherty, sent him an email from a journalist from the financial magazine Forbes dated March 3, 2017, which contained a long series of questions about Donald Trump’s wealth.
With the theme “URGENT fact-checking investigation by Forbes,” the lengthy questionnaire cast doubt on the true surface of Donald Trump’s triplex at Trump Tower.
It was addressed to a Trump Organization official and was then forwarded to Donald Trump Jr., his brother Eric and Trump Organization finance director Allen Weisselberg. “It’s crazy what’s in there,” Donald Trump Jr. responded in an email.
In court, he doesn’t remember the episode well. Has he done any audits? “I don’t know if I did.”
Donald Trump’s triplex is one of the examples cited by the prosecution, since its value would have been given based on an area almost three times larger than the reality (2,700 square meters compared to 1,000 square meters), which would have allowed it to be valued at 327 million U.S. dollar.
Since Wednesday, the court has witnessed a parade by the family clan. After Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, whose hearing continues on Thursday, it will probably be Donald Trump’s turn on Monday.
This trial is just one of the many legal troubles facing the former president of the United States, who has been criminally charged in four other cases, including in federal court in Washington on charges of attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Several criminal proceedings await him in 2024, in the middle of the election campaign for the Republican primaries, which Donald Trump hopes to win in order to run for the White House in a year.
While he faces no prison time in the civil case, the case could result in him losing control of part of his real estate empire, in addition to a $250 million fine and a ban from running companies in New York.