Three of Trump’s adult children and the former President himself are scheduled to testify this week and next in his business fraud trial..
New York State Attorney General Letitia James filed suit in September 2022 against Trump, his companies and its officers including Trump’s two adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, over allegations of more than 200 instances bank, tax and insurance fraud over a 10-year period from 2011 to 2021.
Ivanka Trump was initially also named as a defendant in the suit, but in June a New York State appeals court dismissed all charges against her, ruling that statutes of limitations prevented James from suing over transactions that occurred before July 13, 2014, or February 6, 2016, depending on the defendant—adding that all claims against Ivanka Trump were too old to be included the lawsuit.
Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump are scheduled to testify this Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.
Former President Trump is scheduled to testify Monday, November 6.
Ivanka Trump will testify Wednesday, November 8; she was ordered to do so by New York State Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron last week, after he heard arguments from her attorneys who said she should not be compelled to testify because she’s no longer a principle in her father’s company.
Engoron sided with James’ assertion that Ms. Trump “indisputably has personal knowledge of facts relevant to the claims against the remaining individual and entity Defendants. But even beyond that, Ms. Trump remains financially and professionally intertwined with the Trump Organization and other Defendants and can be called as a person still under their control.”
Last month, Engoron issued a summary judgment in the civil suit, agreeing with James’ allegations that Trump and his company and officers did in fact commit business fraud during the decade in question.
The summary judgment resolved the key claim in James’ lawsuit, but the other claims remain, including the amount of damages that will be levied. The state Attorney General is suing Trump and the other defendants for $250 million in penalties and a ban on Trump doing business in his home state. The trial could last into December, according to Engoron.
On Saturday the former President blasted Engoron on his Truth Social platform as “this Trump Hating, Unhinged Judge” for compelling his daughter to testify, stating, “My daughter, Ivanka, was released from this Fake Letitia James case by the Court of Appeals.”
Trump’s post went on to insist that “there was NO VICTIM, EXCEPT ME,” adding that Engoron was “CRAZED in his hatred of me.”
Engoron has fined the former President a total of $15,000 for two instances in which he violated a gag order by posting, and then leaving the post on his campaign website, a disparagement of the judge’s law clerk that included a photo of her with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) alongside a false claim that she was “Schumer’s girlfriend” and accused her of “running this case against me [Trump].”
He also told reporters that the clerk was “very partisan” ahead of the judge issuing the second fine, which was $10,000, on Wednesday. Later that same day, he stormed out of the courtroom after Engoron refused to dismiss the fraud case entirely.
TOP PHOTO: Trump at civil fraud trial, Oct 2
2ND PHOTO: Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump outside the White House in 2019
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