Donald Trump answers questions for seven hours in $250M business fraud deposition 

Donald Trump spent seven hours answering questions during a statement from New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday.

The former president was impeached for a second time as part of a $250 million fraud case accusing him of falsifying the value of his properties and seeking to ban him from doing business in New York State.

Trump’s attorney said he was “eager to testify” to clear his name of those allegations and that he has “nothing to hide.”

In the photo, Trump was seen exiting Trump Tower in Manhattan at around 9:30 a.m. before traveling by motorcade to the attorney general’s office, where prosecutors scrutinized him throughout the day.

His cooperation marks a departure from his approach in the first statement last August, in which he pleaded 400 times for the Fifth Amendment and said he would be an “absolute fool” if he didn’t.

However, the circumstances were different then, as James had not yet filed any official charges against him. She did so a month later in September – a trial is scheduled for October.

Pictured, he left Trump Tower in Manhattan at about 9:30 a.m. before traveling by motorcade to the offices of AG Letitia James.

The lawsuit accuses Trump, the Trump Organization and three of his children – Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump – of providing false financial statements to lenders and business partners.

His three children were also impeached earlier last year by the Attorney General’s office — Ivanka and Trump Jr. both answered the prosecutors’ questions, but Eric relied on the Fifth.

James alleges that as part of a more than a decade-long scheme, the Trump family and organization misrepresented their net worth and the value of their assets, including hotels and golf courses.

Shortly after Trump entered the Manhattan skyscraper that houses James’ offices on Thursday, his attorney, Alina Habba, said he was “not only willing but eager to testify.”

“He remains firm in his stance that he has nothing to hide, and he looks forward to informing the Attorney General of the immense success of his multibillion-dollar business,” Habba said in a statement.

The lawsuit is separate from the criminal charges filed against Trump by the Manhattan district attorney, which led to his landmark indictment last week, the first for a former president.

In a social media post Thursday morning, Trump called the lawsuit “ridiculous, like all the other electoral interference cases brought against me.”

New York AG Letitia James (pictured in September 2022) alleges that the Trump family and organization misrepresented their wealth and the value of their assets, including hotels and golf courses, as part of a more than a decade-long scheme

Trump’s lawyer said he was “eager to testify” to clear his name of those allegations and that he has “nothing to hide”

He raised a fist as he left his Trump Tower apartment in the morning and arrived at the attorney general’s office by motorcade at about 9:40 a.m.

The two sides were in a meeting for more than seven hours and also took a lunch break — he left the motorcade just before 6:15 p.m. and did not stop to talk to reporters.

James declined to answer a question about the statement at a press conference on an unrelated matter on Wednesday.

In the first statement on August 10 last year, Trump met with James’ lawyers, but declined to answer a few procedural questions.

James had not charged her at the time, and it was unclear whether questions about Trump’s valuation of his company would become the basis of a criminal case.

“Anyone in my position not to accept the Fifth Amendment would be a fool, an absolute fool,” he said in that statement.

It was videotaped and later released publicly. Trump predicted that a “renegade” prosecutor would try to make his answers a criminal case if he gave them.

Former President Donald Trump’s motorcade arrives Thursday at an attorney general’s office building for testimony in a New York civil investigation

His cooperation marks a departure from his approach in the First Statement, in which he advocated more than 400 times for the Fifth

“A statement or answer that is so slightly off, very slightly, by accident, by mistake, such as it was a sunny, beautiful day, when it was actually a little overcast, would be answered by the police on a level that is rarely prevents. seen in this country, because I have experienced it,” he said.

Circumstances have changed since then. The criminal charges filed by the Manhattan District Attorney focused on how the company internally accounted for payments made to an attorney, Michael Cohen, for his work rewarding people for not going public with stories about extramarital sexual encounters that Trump said never happened.

The lawsuit filed by James will go to trial on October 2 and will be heard by New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron.

Trump has two other pending cases.

He faces 34 felony charges for hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, as well as a sexual assault and defamation lawsuit brought by columnist E Jean Carroll.