Former President Donald Trump will take the witness stand in a New York courtroom Monday to testify in a high-stakes civil case that could lead to the dismantling of his growing business empire.
“I know you’re very excited to be here and you think this is one of the most incredible injustices you’ve ever seen, and it really is,” his son Eric Trump told reporters Friday, after finishing testifying in the lawsuit. of $250 million in the civil fraud trial.
Trump will be questioned under oath by an attorney from state Attorney General Letitia James’ Office in front of state Judge Arthur Engoron, a judge he has repeatedly mocked on his social media platform, Truth Social. In recent days, he has posted that Engoron is “crazy, totally unhinged and dangerous” and a “Trump-hating judge” who is an “embarrassment to the legal profession.” In one post, he said Engoron “should be kicked off the bench as a gigantic embarrassment to the state of New York.”
There is no jury, so Engoron will ultimately decide the outcome of the trial, including whether Trump, his children and his company must pay any fines.
Trump’s previous sworn testimony related to the case has already proven problematic for him.
He was first deposed while James investigated the case in August 2022 and invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination nearly 450 times.
He was deposed again in April after James filed his explosive lawsuit alleging that he and his company inflated their assets to the tune of billions of dollars to obtain more favorable rates from banks and insurers, and his answers will likely be a guide to how He will be questioned on Monday.
Trump spent about seven hours in the statement answering questions from the Attorney General’s Office and disavowing his responsibility for the annual financial statements, which read: “Donald J. Trump is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of the financial statement in accordance with the accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.
The Attorney General’s Office maintains that he deviated greatly from accepted accounting principles, but Trump testified that he trusted the accountants who compiled the financial statements and that in many cases he thought his properties were being undervalued.
Ana Ledo informs us.
Trump told James’ office that at the trial “we will have numbers that will blow your mind.” “Your numbers for him are very wrong. In reality, his numbers are very low,” he added.
Engoron cited some of Trump’s testimony in his summary judgment finding him responsible for fraud ahead of the Oct. 2 trial.
“The defenses that Donald Trump attempts to articulate in his affidavit have absolutely no basis in fact or law,” he said.
In a case that drew Trump’s ire, the judge took issue with Trump’s valuation of his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, noting that the Palm Beach County appraiser assessed its market value at between $18 million and $27.6 million. 2011 and 2021, while Trump’s balance sheet places its value between $426 and $612 million. Trump, who has repeatedly complained that Engoron cited the $18 million figure, maintained that the property is worth much more and could be considered even more valuable if sold as a private residence.
Trump took the stand once very briefly in the fraud trial while in court for his former lawyer Michael Cohen’s testimony. Engoron asked Trump if he was referring to the judge’s law clerk when he complained to reporters about “a very partisan person sitting next to” the judge. Engoron had banned Trump from speaking about his judicial staff after Trump smeared the secretary on social media.
Trump said under oath that he was talking about Cohen, but Engoron found his response “not credible” and fined him $10,000.
The last time Trump testified in depth during a trial was in a civil case in Chicago in 2013. The Associated Press described his testimony at the time as “sometimes prickly, sometimes boastful.”
“I don’t want to be a braggart: I build big buildings,” he said during his two days on the stand in the case, in which he was accused of misleading an 87-year-old woman about a condo in a Trump building in Chicago. The jury ruled in his favor.
Trump will also be tried in four criminal cases next year: the classified federal documents case; the Fulton County, Georgia election interference case; the election interference case in Washington, DC; and the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into hush money payments to Stormy Daniels.
At least one other former president has testified in court after leaving office: Teddy Roosevelt did so twice.
The 26th president was a plaintiff in a civil suit against a Michigan newspaper that had accused him of being drunk in 1913. The second was a civil case in which Roosevelt was sued by a New York Republican Party boss whom he had accused of being corrupt. Roosevelt won both cases.
2023-11-06 15:43:47
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