[1/12]Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s son and co-defendant Donald Trump Jr. in the Trump Organization civil fraud trial in New York State Supreme Court in the Manhattan borough of New York City, Nov. 1, 2023. REUTERS/Mike Segar/Pool License Rights
New York, November 1, 2011 (FBC) Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., said in a civil fraud trial in New York on Wednesday that he had nothing to do with the financial affairs of the former US president and his family’s businesses. Values for lenders and insurers.
Donald Jr., executive vice president of the Trump Organization and a co-defendant in the case, was the first of Trump’s adult children to testify, followed by Eric and Ivanka Trump. Their father is scheduled to testify Monday.
Dressed in a blue suit and pink tie, Donald Jr. said he and Eric took over the company when his father took over as president in 2017, but said they had little involvement in financial matters, which were at the heart of it. His testimony may continue until Thursday.
Donald Jr.’s testimony could be another flashpoint in a trial that has seen sharp exchanges between attorneys and witnesses and heated arguments over the admissibility of evidence.
The lawsuit by New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, accused Trump, his two grown children and several family businesses of inflating their assets by billions of dollars to get better loan terms.
The trial is one of the many legal problems facing Trump as he campaigns to retake the White House. In the year He has a commanding lead over his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination to face Democratic President Joe Biden in the November 2024 election, polls show.
The elder Trump He is facing four separate criminal charges, including cases in Washington and Georgia, related to his attempt to reverse his 2020 election loss.
Trump has denied the allegations and has repeatedly accused James and Judge Arthur Engron of political bias.
“Leave my children alone, Ingoron, you are a disgrace to the legal profession!” He wrote on social media on Wednesday morning.
Trump is under a limited gag order that prohibits him from speaking publicly about court personnel, but he violated it twice and was fined $15,000 for attacking Ingoron’s top secretary, whom he accused of bias. He was not sanctioned for his attack on Engron or James.
The Washington judge overseeing the federal election nullification trial also issued a limited gag order. Trump sued both for violating their free speech rights.
Trump is not in court.
Trump himself is not required to attend the trial, and he did not appear in court on Wednesday.
He appeared in court last week over an alleged affair with his former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, who testified against his former boss last week.
Cohen, meeting face-to-face with Trump for the first time since their acrimonious breakup five years ago, instructed Trump to raise asset values to reach his desired arbitrary net worth.
Trump has a campaign event in Houston on Thursday as Eric Trump prepares to testify.
Ahead of the trial, Ingoron said in September that Trump had fraudulently overstated his wealth and ordered the dissolution of companies that controlled pillars of his real estate portfolio, including Trump Tower in Manhattan. That decision was put on hold while Trump appealed.
The trial will mostly deal with damages. James is seeking at least a $250 million fine, a permanent ban on Trump and his two adult sons from doing business in New York, and a five-year commercial real estate ban on Trump and the Trump Organization.
Reporting by Jack Queen; Additional reporting by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Scott Malone and Jonathan Otis
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