Eric Trump, one of Donald Trump’s children, in court in New York, November 2, 2023 (POOL/AFP/SHANNON STAPLETON)
Former US President Donald Trump will come “pumped up” on Monday in New York to testify at the trial which threatens his real estate empire, assured Friday Eric Trump, prosecuted with his brother Donald Jr and their father for vast financial frauds.
Since Wednesday, the Manhattan courthouse has been the scene of a parade by the Trump family clan for this civil trial, without a jury, which started just a month ago.
After Donald Jr and Eric this week, it will be the turn on Monday at 10:00 a.m. (3:00 p.m. GMT) of the former tenant of the White House, who dreams of returning there on January 20, 2025.
On Monday, the United States will be one year less a day before the presidential election of November 5, 2024. Donald Trump is the favorite in the Republican primaries to a priori face Democratic President Joe Biden.
“My dad will obviously be there (Monday). I know he’s pumped up. And he thinks it’s one of the most extraordinary injustices he’s ever seen,” said youngest son Eric Trump, 39, on the second day of his hearing before the New York Supreme Court (trial court, editor’s note) presided over by Judge Arthur Engoron.
Former US President Donald Trump in New York court during his civil fraud trial, October 25, 2023 (AFP/Archives/TIMOTHY A. CLARY)
This civil trial in which the Attorney General of the State of New York, Letitia James, is seeking $250 million in damages for financial fraud “is a joke”, protested Eric Trump.
“And guys, we’re going to win this case. I promise you we’re going to win because we didn’t make one damn mistake,” he assured.
– “Masquerade” –
And as he left the court at noon Friday when proceedings were suspended until Monday, Eric Trump called the trial a “masquerade.”
Eric Trump, son of former US President Donald Trump, leaves the courtroom during a break in the Trump Organization civil trial, on November 2, 2023 in New York (AFP/TIMOTHY A. CLARY)
The Trump Organization family empire is in any case threatened because Judge Engoron had already ruled in a scathing September 26 order, before the trial, that Mr. Trump, his sons and other executives were responsible for “financial “frauds” repeated” in the 2010s.
The former president does not risk prison but the civil verdict could cause him to lose control of part of his group, in addition to a heavy fine and the ban on managing companies in New York.
So much so that Donald Jr, 45 years old, and Eric, the two vice-presidents of the group, with a very neat and almost identical appearance with chic suits and ties, had the same line of defense this week: they were not concerned not financial statements at the center of the trial, a task left to accountants.
It is from these annual financial statements of the Republican billionaire, sorts of photographs of his fortune listing his properties – such as the Trump Tower in Manhattan – that the New York State Attorney General’s Office accuses the Trumps of having inflated the value of the group’s assets in the 2010s.
– Billions of dollars in fraud –
Fraudulent maneuvers amounting to billions of dollars, intended to obtain more favorable loans from banks and better insurance conditions, according to the accusation.
Donald Trump Jr. (l) and Eric Trump (c) arrive at New York Supreme Court to testify in the civil trial against their family group Trump Organization, November 2, 2023 (AFP/TIMOTHY A. CLARY)
As for Ivanka Trump, one of the ex-president’s daughters, who is not facing civil proceedings and left the Trump Organization in 2017 to advise her father at the White House, she lost her appeal on Thursday evening. justice against an order from Judge Engoron for her to come and testify.
The date of November 8 had been mentioned.
This trial by the Trump family is just one of the many legal troubles of the New York businessman which will punctuate the electoral campaign for a year.
He is criminally charged in four cases, including one in federal court in Washington for accusations of attempting to reverse the results of the November 2020 presidential election.
burs-nr/bpe
© 2023 AFP
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