The two older sons of Donald J. Trump have finally taken the stand as part of one of the embattled former president’s keenly awaited trials, and while both demonstrated somewhat different approaches to this case, their shared strategy seems to be deny, deny, deny.
To clarify, in addition to the four state and federal criminal indictments of Trump, this case is connected to civil fraud allegations in the state of New York against Trump, two of his children, and the Trump Organization. A judge determined before the trial that the Trumps are liable for the fraud. The current proceedings are being held to determine penalties.
The Trump family is testifying in a case New York Attorney General Letitia James brought forward in a lawsuit last year accusing them of inflating the value of several of Trump’s assets and properties to bolster his business needs. Trump also allegedly claimed his net worth was $3.6 billion in three separate years between 2011 and 2021.
James’ suit claims that assets like skyscrapers, golf courses, and his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida were routinely overvalued in fraudulent financial statements.
Both Trump brothers, who are executive vice presidents at the Trump Organization, were questioned about those very statements in their witness testimony on Thursday. Both denied any familiarity, knowledge, and involvement with those documents.
Donald Trump Jr. pointed to the Trump Organization’s accountants as the principal overseers of all the company’s finances. He was asked about an email exchange he had with Forbes that included misrepresentations about Trump’s triplex apartment.
Forbes flagged misstatements in that exchange that made their way into statements of financial condition and were submitted to banks and insurance companies, according to The New York Times. Trump Jr. even signed a letter to an outside accounting firm saying that the statements were free from material misstatement. He denied this in court.
He was a more genial presence in court, heartily telling one state attorney, “Rinse and repeat,” after being asked a repetitive series of questions. In a more colorful moment, he reportedly told a courtroom artist, “Make me look sexy,” during a courtroom recess.
His younger brother, Eric Trump, comported himself more seriously in court. While on the stand, he found himself being hammered by an attorney for the state attorney general’s office about his alleged involvement with the company’s finances.
The prosecution didn’t let up on one line of questioning about a 2013 email a Trump Organization employee sent to Eric Trump that revealed his knowledge of the counterfeit statements at the center of this case.
“We’re a major organization, a massive real estate organization – yes, I’m fairly sure I understand that we have financial statements. Absolutely,” Trump told attorney Andrew Amer.
He later added: “I had no involvement and never worked on my father’s statement of financial condition.”
Even when Amer continued to press him on his knowledge of these statements and others, he kept denying direct involvement with their preparation. He said that he only provided financial information when he was requested to by company employees, but claimed he didn’t know the details he sent contributed to his father’s annual statements.
Even though the Trump brothers work for the Trump Organization, Eric Trump is more of a heavyweight in his father’s business dealings than Donald Trump Jr., who has been a very vocal presence for his father in the political arena. So prosecutors took special care to hound Eric Trump rather than his brother about the company’s finances and his family’s assets that several financial documents connect him to. Trump even called his father’s Mar-a-Lago resort a “private residence,” even though it is listed as a social club on its deed and was valued as a commercial property for tax purposes.
Donald Trump Jr. has told reporters that this case is “purely a political persecution.”
The Trump patriarch himself will take the stand on Monday in this highly anticipated trial. Unsurprisingly, he’s already commented on the proceedings so far, saying that his sons were wronged in their time on the stand.
“So sad to see my sons being PERSECUTED,” Trump wrote on TruthSocial.
The state seeks $250 million in financial penalties, plus strict limitations on the Trump Organization and its executives conducting any business in New York.
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