He former US President Donald Trump appeared in court again this Thursday for questioning under oath in a case of financial fraud of his empresa Trump Organizationa week after his indictment in another criminal case.
New York State Attorney General Letitia James accuses Trump, his company and three of his children of fraudulently manipulating the value of the family business’s assets for years to apply for advantageous loans and obtain tax breaks.
The 76-year-old former president, who intends to return to the White House in the 2024 elections, was to be questioned under oath behind closed doors.
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The Republican millionaire left Trump Tower, on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, and a little later entered the parking lot of the building that houses the offices of New York Attorney General Letitia James, in the financial district, near Wall Street, verified journalists from the AFP.
Opponents and supporters flocked to the vicinity, where the forces of order were deployed in anticipation of possible disturbances.
The attorney general of the state of New York, Letitia James, demands that Donald Trump and three of his children pay 250 million dollars in compensation and disqualification from running companies.
James accuses them of an “incredible fraud”, in his words, for having “deliberately” manipulated the valuations of the assets of the family emporium, which includes golf courses, luxury hotels and other properties, to obtain bank loans or reduce taxes.
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Last December, two companies linked to the Trump Organization were found guilty in a New York court of various charges of tax evasion, for paying executives “under the table,” giving them a significant portion of their compensation so they could reduce your taxable portion.
The two companies found guilty by a jury in Manhattan Supreme Court were Trump Corporation and Trump Payroll Corporation, although neither the former president nor his relatives were indicted.
The Manhattan Prosecutor’s Office had accused the company of operating a tax evasion scheme for more than 15 years, assuring that it reached the highest levels of responsibility, against the defense argument that its orchestrators acted for their own benefit and did not on behalf of the company.
Trump’s response
These interrogations behind closed doors under oath take place within the framework of the proceedings carried out prior to the trial, scheduled for the beginning of October.
On his social network, Truth Social, Trump accused the prosecutor of having leaked his time of appearance to the press. “This civil case is ridiculous,” wrote the former president, who considers all investigations against him to be “electoral interference.”
At the same time, through his electoral campaign, he released a long statement loaded with accusations against the prosecutor whom he calls a radical and of persecuting Trump for political reasons, among many other things.
In a message on his social network Truth Socialthe former president also called the New York prosecutor “racist”, an African-American Democrat elected at the polls. He also uses that adjective against Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg, also an African-American, who charged him last week.
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The tycoon had already been questioned by James last August, but throughout the hearing he invoked his right to remain silent, under the 5th Amendment of the US Constitution.
This case is different from the criminal process in which he was charged last week in which he was accused of 34 crimes for alleged accounting fraud to hide a payment to a porn actress Stormy Daniel in order to buy her silence in the final stretch of the 2016 elections for an alleged relationship ten years before that the tycoon has always denied.
In addition to his historical imputation – he is the first president to sit on the bench – Trump is in the crosshairs of justice for his alleged involvement in the attempt to reverse the results of the 2020 vote in Georgiaand for his role in the assault on the Capitol by his followers, on January 6, 2021.
AFP Y EFE
