(NEW YORK) As he was scheduled to testify Monday in a civil trial for financial fraud, Donald Trump changed his mind and announced Sunday that he had “nothing more to say.”
The 77-year-old former president posted a surprising message on the Truth social network, saying that he, his eldest sons Donald Jr. and Eric, and other Trump Organization executives have “already testified to everything” in the trial.
The latter were accused in the 2010s of wildly inflating the value of skyscrapers, luxury hotels or golf courses at the heart of his empire in order to obtain more favorable loans from banks and better insurance conditions.
Since the trial began on October 2, the Republican billionaire has denounced Justice as a “witch hunt” or a “trial fit for banana republics” every time he appears in court. After the attacks on his clerk, Judge Donald Trump banned him from speaking about his team and fined him a total of $15,000 for violating the order.
Unlike the criminal trials that await him in 2024, including his manipulations aimed at changing the outcome of the November 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump is not risking prison time in this civil case.
But he is playing well and things are off to a rough start.
Before the trial began, Judge Arthur Engoron assessed at the end of September that “between 2014 and 2021, the defendants presented convincing evidence that the group’s assets were overvalued by 812 million.” [à] Among the figures recorded in Donald Trump’s annual financial statements is $2.2 billion depending on the year.
As a result of “repeated fraud,” Trump ordered the liquidation of companies managing these properties, such as Tower.e The nearly century-old skyscraper of Avenue de New York or 40 Wall Street. Proceedings stayed on appeal.
The investigation concerns multiple crimes, including insurance fraud and financial penalties sought by the New York State Attorney General’s Office, which is seeking $250 million.
Donald Trump’s lawyers denounced the empty file.
They assure that real estate valuations are necessarily subjective and that banks are properly repaid and have performed well financially. In recent weeks, witnesses called by the defense have gone in this direction, including a current and former executive at one of the lenders, Deutsche Bank.
But another investment banker, MM Dillon & Co. According to boss Michiel McCarty, if banks had a less rosy picture of the company’s financial situation at their disposal, they might have decided to set higher interest rates. Donald Trump. He estimated $168 million in interest losses from 2014 to 2023, which the defense denied.
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