Suspected of financial fraud within his Trump Organization group, Donald Trump remained silent on Wednesday August 10 during a six-hour sworn hearing with the New York Attorney General.
The former president of the United States has been targeted since 2019 with two of his children – Ivanka and Donald Jr – by a civil investigation by the highest magistrate of New York State, Letitia James. It was heard by Mr.me James and his team in Manhattan from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. local time (3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Paris time), but he announced in a statement at the start of the hearing that he had invoked the American Constitution, which allows any litigant not to testify against himself.
The magistrate, an elected Democrat, confirmed this in a brief press release after her face-to-face with the Republican billionaire and assured that she “would pursue the facts [et l’application] of the law, wherever that leads”. “Our investigations continue”a promis Mme James, who has been hammering for three years that “No one is above the law” in the USA.
” Witch hunt “
On the contrary, in its communiqué, on 45e American president has once again presented himself as the victim of a ” witch hunt “ and claimed to have “refused to answer questions” under the Constitution.
“In the past, I’ve asked the question, ‘If you’re innocent, why do you accept the Fifth Amendment?’ Now I know the answer to that question”he explains in the press release. “When your family, your business and everyone around you have become the targets of an unfounded, politically motivated witch hunt, backed by lawyers, prosecutors and the fake news media, you have no choice. »he justifies.
At the end of the hearing, the businessman spoke on his social network Truth Social about a “very professional meeting”. “I have a fantastic business with great assets, very little debt and lots of CASH. It only happens in America! », he added. Barely entered Mme James, he had made fun of his “lavish, beautiful and expensive office (…)great working conditions as people get killed in New York and she spends her time and effort trying to ‘catch Trump'”.
And when he arrived in New York on Tuesday evening, he had even accused the African-American prosecutor of being “racist”claiming to be, with his family and the Trump Organization, the target “attacks from all sides” in “banana republic” ruled by Democrat Joe Biden.
Explosive testimony
This hearing of Donald Trump – who left power on January 20, 2021 without recognizing the victory of Joe Biden and who openly flirts with the idea of representing himself in 2024 – was claimed by Mme James for months and had been set for July 15. But the death of Donald Trump’s first wife, Ivana, had further postponed the event. According to CNN, Ivanka and Donald Jr had discreetly been heard by the services of the Attorney General in late July and early August.
The civil investigation against the family group Trump Organization had been opened after the explosive testimony in Congress in Washington by one of Donald Trump’s former personal lawyers, Michael Cohen, alleging fraudulent assessments, up or down , assets within the Trump Organization, to obtain loans, obtain tax reductions or better insurance compensation.
Letitia James had assured in January to have “uncovered significant evidence that suggests that Donald Trump and the Trump Organization falsely and fraudulently valued a number of assets”, in particular golf courses or the personal triplex of the American billionaire, located in the Trump Tower in New York. Allegations brushed aside by Donald Trump’s lawyers.
The Attorney General does not have the power to indict Donald Trump but she can initiate civil proceedings and in particular claim financial damages. The alleged facts are also the subject of an investigation, criminal this time, led by the Manhattan prosecutor.
Trump clame son innocence
The hearing comes two days after an unprecedented search of Donald Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, sparked outrage among Republicans. He even suggested on Truth Social that the FBI may have ” square “ evidence against him during the operation.
Never had a former tenant of the White House been worried by justice in this way. Does the federal police search have to do with the many boxes that Donald Trump took with him when he left the White House in January 2021? Is it linked to the investigation into his responsibility in the assault on the Capitol? Does it rather concern the suspicions of financial fraud of which the Trump Organization is the subject in New York?
Neither the Department of Justice, nor the FBI, nor the justice of New York has made a comment this week. Donald Trump claims his innocence in all these cases.