The former president and his sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., have now testified as part of the $250 million civil fraud trial.
Donald Trump’s testimony during his civil fraud trial in New York differed entirely from how his sons defended themselves and the former president in court.
Donald Trump answered questions under oath on Monday as part of New York Attorney General Letitia James’ $250 million fraud lawsuit accusing the former president, two of his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., and executives and The Trump Organization of filing fraudulent financial statements that inflated the value of a number of properties and assets for years.
Trump has denied all wrongdoing in connection to James’ lawsuit, but Judge Arthur Engoron, who is overseeing the civil trial, has already found the former president liable for fraud with regard to the financial statements and the proceedings are mainly to determine the size of the penalty.
While on the stand, Donald Trump and Engoron engaged in several heated exchanges, with the judge increasingly growing weary of the former president not directly answering questions and giving « speeches. » At one point, Engoron even asked Donald Trump’s attorney Chris Kise « can you control your client? This is not a political rally, » as the former president gave another long-winded response to a question.
While defending himself on the stand, Donald Trump denied that he had over-inflated the value of his assets and that they could have even been higher based on his « brand. »
« The brand value is a very big part of the asset value of the company, » Donald Trump said when responding to allegations he inflated his net worth in financial statements by billions of dollars over the years.
