2023-11-02 14:37:59
Donald Trump Jr, the eldest son of the former US president of the same name, appeared this Wednesday in a civil court in New York for a case of financial fraud that puts the family business in check.
45-year-old Donald Trump Jr is the first of the family clan to offer testimony before investigating judge Arthur Engoron, and in his statement he assured that he was not dealing with the financial documents at the heart of the accusation.
On Thursday he will be followed by his brother Eric Trump, 39, then Donald Trump himself and then his daughter Ivanka, who, however, filed an appeal not to testify.
Don Jr, executive vice president of the Trump Organization, is accused like his father and brother Eric by New York State Attorney General Letitia James of inflating the group’s assets by hundreds of millions of dollars to obtain bank loans. more advantageous and better insurance conditions.
Donald Trump’s eldest son appeared in court on Wednesday and confirmed his role at the head of the Trump Organization, a conglomerate of companies that manages residential and office skyscrapers, luxury hotels and golf courses around the world.
During his interrogation, prosecutor Colleen Faherty asked him who had the reins of the group when his father began his presidential term in January 2017.
“Myself, my brother (Eric) and Allen Weisselberg,” was Don Jr.’s response. Weisselberg is the company’s former chief financial officer, who was sentenced to prison last year for tax fraud.
The eldest son of the Trumps also assured the prosecution that he does not know how a company’s accounting works.
“I leave that to my CPAs,” he said, referring to the government-certified accountants in charge of issuing reports on companies.
Considered by the prosecution to be responsible for Donald Trump’s annual financial statements since 2016, the eldest son explained that he had placed his trust in the Mazars accounting company.
“Leave my children alone”
“I was not involved in the preparation of that statement,” he added. “Accountants work on that, that’s what we pay them for.”
But prosecutor James wrote on her X social network account (formerly Twitter) that “Trump Jr. has long been involved in his family’s fraudulent business operations.”
If Trump, 77, takes the stand in the Manhattan courtroom where the trial is taking place, it will be the first time he will testify publicly in any of the various civil and criminal cases he faces.
Trump and his children are not at risk of going to jail in this case, but it could lead to the loss of control of part of their real estate holdings, a fine of $250 million and a ban on managing companies in New York.
Prior to his son’s testimony, Donald Trump attacked Judge Engoron, who is presiding over the case.
“Leave my children alone, Engoron. You are a disgrace to the judicial profession,” the former president wrote on his Truth Social network.
True to his style, Trump has called the judge “crazy, totally unbalanced and dangerous” and “doing the Democratic Party’s dirty work” to prevent him from returning to the White House and prosecutor James as “corrupt.”
Since the start of the trial, on October 2, the judge has already imposed fines on the billionaire – $5,000 and $10,000 – for attacking the judicial secretary of the court trying him.
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