Foiled in their long bid for a speedy verdict, Donald Trump’s lawyers will begin calling witnesses on November 13 in their own fraud case in New York, which threatens the former president’s real estate empire.
First up: Donald Trump Jr., who will return to the witness stand two weeks after state attorneys questioned him during much of the trial, which also featured testimony from his father and siblings Eric and Ivanka Trump.
Trump’s eldest son, an executive vice president of the Trump Organization, originally testified on November 1 and 2. He said he never worked on the financial statements at the center of New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit. He said he relied on the company’s longtime chief financial officer and outside accounts to verify its accuracy.
Ms. James alleges that Donald Trump, his company and executives, including Eric and Donald Jr., overstated his wealth by billions of dollars on financial statements provided to banks, insurers and others. The documents were used to secure loans and close deals. She is demanding more than $300 million in ill-gotten gains and a ban on suspects from doing business in New York.
Before the trial, Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that the defendants had committed fraud by inflating his net worth and the value of his assets on his financial statements. He imposed a sentence that could strip Mr. Trump of major properties like Trump Tower, though an appeals court is letting him retain control for now.
The Trumps have denied wrongdoing. Their lawyers argue the state has failed to meet “any legal standard” to prove charges of conspiracy, insurance fraud and falsifying corporate documents. The state rested its case on November 8 after six weeks of testimony from more than 20 witnesses. Among them: company insiders, accountants, bank officials and Michael Cohen, the fixer turned Trump enemy.
The trial continues after Mr Engoron last week rejected the defense’s request to end it early through a so-called directed verdict. Mr Engoron did not rule on the request, but indicated that the trial would proceed as planned.
Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Christopher Kise, who was seeking a verdict that would acquit Mr. Trump and other defendants, argued on Nov. 9 that the state’s case involved only “successful and profitable loan transactions” and that “there is no victim. There is no complainer. There are no injuries.”
After testifying in early November, Donald Trump Jr. repeated his father’s claims that the case was “purely a political prosecution” brought by Ms. James, a Democrat, to boost Mr. Trump’s chances as the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination to be weakened by 2024. .
“I think this is a really scary precedent for New York – for me, for example, before I’ve even spent a day in court, I’m apparently guilty of fraud because I rely on my accountants to do, just wait and see: accounting,” he said. Trump Jr. told reporters on November 2.
On November 13, Mr. Trump Jr. will be the first to be questioned by the lawyers representing him, his father and other defendants. A state attorney is also expected to question him during cross-examination. Mr. Trump Jr. is expected to testify on November 13 and 14, followed by a tax attorney who also testified as a state witness.
The defense also plans to call several expert witnesses as part of their case, in an effort to refute testimony from state witnesses that Trump’s financial statements earned him better loan terms and insurance premiums and were a factor in deal-making.
When he became president in 2017, Mr. Trump turned over the day-to-day management of his company to Eric and Donald Trump Jr. and appointed Mr. Trump Jr. as trustee of a trust he set up to hold his assets during his term in office.
In Trump Jr.’s earlier testimony, when asked if he had ever worked on his father’s “state of financial condition,” the scion said, “Not that I recall.” Mr. Trump Jr. said he signed the statements as a trustee but left the work to outside auditors and the company’s then-chief financial officer and co-trustee, Allen Weisselberg.
“I had a duty to listen to the people with intimate knowledge of these things,” Mr. Trump Jr. testified. “If they bring something up, I didn’t work on the document, but if they tell me it’s right is, based on their accounting review of all material. … These people had incredible, deep knowledge, and I trusted them.”
This story was reported by The Associated Press.