Business

Trump’s Sons Eric And Don Jr. Are Taking The Stand In Fraud Trial From Today

November 2, 2023

Topline

Donald Trump, Jr. and Eric Trump are slated to testify Wednesday and Thursday in the ongoing trial accusing them, their father former President Donald Trump and their company of fraud, with the brothers’ depositions in the case suggesting they won’t take any responsibility for the allegedly fraudulent scheme—though Eric Trump’s previous claims could now come back to haunt him.

Donald Trump Jr. (L) and Eric Trump attend a ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial … [+] in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, northwestern France, on June 6, 2019.

AFP via Getty Images

Key Facts

New York Attorney General Letitia James is suing former President Donald Trump, his two sons, other business associates and the Trump Organization for allegedly fraudulently misstating the value of assets on financial documents, in order to obtain more favorable business deals and boost the ex-president’s net worth.

Donald Trump, Jr.: The ex-president’s son, an executive vice president at the Trump Organization who took control of his father’s revocable trust after he assumed the presidency, was ostensibly responsible for preparing statements of financial condition that were submitted to financial institutions—which prosecutors allege contain the fraudulent valuations—and attested to the accuracy of those statements from 2017 to 2019, the lawsuit alleges, as well as helping with information included in the statements at properties like Trump Park Avenue.

In a July 2022 deposition, taken before James’ lawsuit was filed later that year, Donald Trump, Jr. claimed he “had almost no involvement in” compiling statements of financial condition and that he signed letters attesting to the statements’ information based on the advice of other employees who had “more intimate understanding of the specifics of those things,” asking them if “they believed, you know, all the representations to be accurate and that I was, you know, safe to sign.”

Donald Trump, Jr. testified he may have been involved with valuations insofar as he “would have talked about the deals that I was, you know, aware of that were going on, what I thought they would sell” and other factors, and how those would impact revenues, and he argued real estate is “not a perfect science,” so the value of a building can change.

Eric Trump: The ex-president’s other son is an executive vice president at the Trump Organization who has similarly helped lead the company in the wake of his father’s ascension to the White House, and he attested to the accuracy of statements of financial condition in 2020 and 2021, as well as allegedly playing a role in valuations for properties he had more control over like the company’s Seven Springs estate in Westchester County, New York; Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas and various golf courses, according to the lawsuit.

After declining to answer questions and invoking his Fifth Amendment rights in his first deposition in October 2020, Eric Trump then testified in a March 2023 deposition that he also played no role in calculating valuations or compiling statements of financial condition and just relied on other employees’ judgment before signing off on them, repeatedly alleging to prosecutors he’s “a construction, concrete and on-the-ground operations guy” and accounting issues were “just a totally different side of the company” from what he worked on.

Eric Trump testified he did not have any detailed knowledge of appraisals for properties that he worked on or play any significant role in them, claiming that notes on financial documents that referenced conversations with him don’t indicate any knowledge of valuations and downplaying Zillow listings he emailed to a lawyer and appraiser, which were for comparable properties around Seven Springs, as just being helpful information to pass along.

Contra

Eric Trump’s repeated insistence in April that he played no role in appraisals or valuations has been undercut by other testimony since the trial began, which he’ll now have to answer for on the stand. Former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney, another defendant in the case, testified Eric Trump directed McConney to include things in valuations for certain properties that contributed to inflated figures, such as telling him to include properties that hadn’t been built yet at Silver Springs. (“I have no recollection of ever providing Jeff material to be used in a statement that I’ve never seen,” Eric Trump testified in his deposition.) David McArdle, who appraised properties as part of the firm Cushman & Wakefield, went against Eric Trump’s deposition testimony, in which the ex-president’s son claimed he only had a vague recollection of McArdle and didn’t help with his appraisals at all. McCardle testified at trial that he got “substantial input” from Eric Trump on his appraisal of the company’s Westchester golf course, according to the Associated Press, writing in an email at the time that the ex-president’s son “has lofty ideas on value.”

What To Watch For

Following the brothers’ testimony, which could stretch into Friday, former President Donald Trump is slated to testify in the ongoing trial on Monday, with Ivanka Trump—who was an initial defendant in the case before an appeals court dismissed the allegations against her—then following on November 8. The trial is expected to continue until mid-December.

What We Don’t Know

There are still a number of major allegations the Trump brothers could be asked about on the stand that they didn’t already answer in their publicly released depositions. Eric Trump and Donald Trump, Jr. weren’t asked directly about the discrepancy between what valuations recorded on statements of financial conditions and what other appraisals of those properties found, for instance. The lawsuit makes allegations more directly asserting Eric Trump and Donald Trump, Jr. were aware of the allegedly fraudulent scheme and “knowingly participated” in it than the questions posed of them in their depositions.

Surprising Fact

Eric Trump also tried to deflect blame off of his father in his deposition, saying in response to a question about whether the ex-president had “ultimate authority” over his company, “I think my father had the authority in things that he wanted to have the authority on.” The ex-president’s son claimed his father “would delegate a tremendous amount of responsibility to people”—a line of defense that former President Donald Trump’s attorneys have continued at trial, suggesting the ex-president would delegate responsibility to other people and did not commit fraud himself. In his deposition, Donald Trump, Jr. noted his father could “overrule” any decision he and Eric Trump made about the Trump Organization “if he chose to get involved,” but also alleged he doesn’t recall having any conversations about the company with his father while he was president, and instead “just kept those things separate.”

Tangent

The former president railed against the fraud case in a series of posts Wednesday morning on Truth Social as his sons prepared to take the stand, decrying Judge Arthur Engoron, who’s overseeing the case, as a “political hack” and insisting the trial is “rigged” against him. “Leave my children alone, Engoron. You are a disgrace to the legal profession!” Trump wrote.

Key Background

James sued the Trump family, their associates and company in November 2022 following a yearslong investigation, accusing the ex-president and his associates of misstating valuations on financial documents more than 200 times between 2011 and 2021. Engoron already found all defendants, including Trump and his sons, liable for fraud before the trial kicked off in early October, ruling the valuations had been misstated on financial documents and ordering the company’s business certificates to be canceled. (An appeals court has put that part of the ruling on hold.) Eric Trump and Donald Trump, Jr., have harshly opposed the judge’s ruling, with Eric Trump saying he had “lost all faith in the New York legal system” and Donald Trump, Jr. calling it “nonsensical and asinine.” The Trump family stands to face serious consequences if the judge rules against them at the trial—which is moving forward on separate allegations after Engoron’s fraud ruling—including a $250 million fine and the ex-president and his sons all being barred from running companies in New York.