Donald Trump’s sons are taking center stage at the $250 million civil fraud trial against the Trump family and their company in New York this week, with Donald Trump Jr. taking the stand Wednesday.
The oldest son of the former president is expected to be grilled by lawyers from state Attorney General Letitia James’ office about his involvement in and knowledge of financial statements the attorney general alleges were grossly inflated.
He’ll be followed by his brother Eric Trump, who is expected to testify late Wednesday or Thursday, with their father, the former president, taking the stand on Monday. His testimony will be followed by his daughter Ivanka Trump’s.
James’ office claims Trump’s children were “aware of, and knowingly participated in” a long-running scheme to falsely inflate the company’s assets in order to land loans and insurance policies on more favorable terms than they were entitled to. The three and their father have denied any wrongdoing, and an appeals court ordered Ivanka Trump to be dropped as a defendant in the case, finding the claims against her were too old.
The children were executive vice presidents at the Trump Organization, the real estate company owned by their father, but Ivanka Trump left the company to join her father in the White House.
Donald Jr., Eric and then-chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg formally took charge of the company after Donald Trump was elected president. Weisselberg was removed from his post as a top trustee in 2021 after he was indicted on tax fraud charges. He later pleaded guilty and testified against the company at a related criminal trial.
Donald Trump Jr.’s testimony is expected to focus on his involvement with the company’s statements of financial condition — documents the company shared with banks and insurers that the attorney general alleges wildly overvalued their assets and properties.
When his father was in office, Trump Jr. and Weisselberg were the ones responsible for signing off on the company’s statements, representing them as accurate and having been compiled in accordance with accepted accounting practices. James’ office alleges neither of those representations are true.
The attorney general is also expected to question Trump Jr. about his role in the valuations of certain Trump properties, including an apartment building on Park Avenue in Manhattan that was valued at $292 million, which the attorney general said in court filings is “roughly six times the appraised value” of the property.
The filing also noted that one of the apartments in the building was valued at $25 million — even though Ivanka Trump, who’d been renting it, had an option to buy it for $8.5 million.
Next on the attorney general’s list after Trump Jr. is Eric Trump, whom they described in their lawsuit as being responsible “for all aspects of management and operation of the Trump Organization including new project acquisition, development and construction. Eric Trump actively spearheaded the growth of Trump Golf including the addition of golf properties since 2006.”
The AG’s office is expected to focus much of its questioning of Eric Trump on a more-than-200-acre property called Seven Springs in Westchester County, N.Y. The property was appraised at $30 million in 2006, and five years later was listed on Trump’s financial statements as being worth over $260 million, according to the AG’s suit.
The judge presiding over the case, Arthur Engoron, has already found the Trump Organization liable “for fraudulently inflating the value of Seven Springs.”
At his deposition in the case in March, Eric Trump described the property as “the Mar-a-Lago of the north. It’s one of the incredible houses you’ve ever seen.” He said that although he was involved with the property and others that are the subject of the attorney general’s investigation, he didn’t remember details of individual transactions because they happened years ago and he, his brother and his father had other things on their plate.
“I’m not focusing on every single detail,” he said, adding later that “I’m flying at 30,000 feet on this project.”
“I mean, I’m going around the world doing licensing deals. We’re are acquiring golf courses. We’re doing a million other things. We’re managing hotels. We’re opening hotels in this period of time. I’m not studying every condition for a property,” he said.
Ivanka Trump was originally scheduled to testify in the case Friday, but her appearance has been pushed back until next week because of a prior commitment, a Trump lawyer said in court Monday. James’ office is expected to ask her about her Park Avenue apartment as well as various loans she helped negotiate for the company.
Her testimony will come after her father, who’s scheduled to testify on Monday. In his deposition, Eric Trump said his father had been the longtime head of the company, and acknowledged that while he’s no longer running the day-to-day operations, if there was something his father wanted done, Eric and Donald Trump Jr. would most likely do it.
“Well, at the end of the day, my father is the owner of the company. So I think any owner of the company is always at the top of the pyramid,” Eric Trump testified about his father’s role prior to becoming president. Asked if his father was now at the top of the pyramid again, he said, “You know, in a certain way, maybe.”
“Would I follow if he said, ‘You know, Eric, I think it would be very smart if we acquired this golf course?’ Yes, I would take his directive,” Eric Trump said.
In addition to seeking $250 million in damages, the suit seeks to bar Trump and his sons from serving as officers or directors of any New York corporation.
Source: NBCNews.com
