Eric Trump leaves the New York Supreme Court, Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
Eric Trump leaves the New York Supreme Court, Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
Eric Trump, one of two sons entrusted to run Donald Trump’s real estate empire, today swore he was never involved with or aware of financial statements that New York state lawyers say fraudulently puffed up the ex-president’s wealth and the worth of the family business.
But when a state lawyer pulled up decade-old emails in which a fellow Trump Organisation executive asked him for information needed to complete one of his dad’s financial statements, the irritated son strove to clarify.
“We’re a major organisation — yes, I’m fairly sure I understand that we have financial statements. Absolutely,” Eric Trump said. But, he insisted: “I had no involvement and never worked on my father’s statement of financial condition.”
Later, when told another Trump Organisation figure gave evidence about him being on a video call about his father’s financial statement as recently as 2021, Eric Trump said he could not remember.
Eric Trump followed brother Donald Trump Jr in giving evidence at the family’s New York civil fraud trial, a prelude to their father’s scheduled evidence on Tuesday. Both sons are Trump Organisation executive vice presidents.
As court adjourned, with Eric Trump watching from the witness stand, the judge laid into the defence for dragging his law clerk into their complaints about his handling of the trial.
The clerk was the target of a false and disparaging Trump social media post early in the trial, leading Engoron to impose a gag order barring parties in the case from smearing court staff.
Engoron, raising his voice at times, raised the possibility of expanding the gag order but took no action. The judge said he suspected “a bit of misogyny” toward the clerk, who sits alongside him. Trump’s lawyers denied the allegation.
Trump lawyer Christopher Kise sparked Engoron’s fury by calling out the clerk for passing notes to the judge. He said: “I feel like I’m fighting two adversaries” and said the defence team perceived there was “co-judging taking place.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James is suing Donald Trump, his company and top executives including Eric and Donald Jr, accusing them of inflating the ex-president’s net worth on annual financial statements that were given to banks, insurers and others to secure loans and make deals.
The former president and other defendants deny wrongdoing.
Donald Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination, reiterated on his Truth Social platform that he sees the trial as “RIGGED,” a “Miscarriage of Justice,” and “Election Interference.” James and the judge who will decide the case, Arthur Engoron, are Democrats.
“The Trump Organisation is Financially Strong, Powerful, Very Liquid, AND HAS DONE NOTHING WRONG,” Trump wrote.
Eric Trump, as he started his evidence, said he “never had anything to do with the statement of financial condition,” didn’t believe he’d ever seen one and “didn’t know anything about it, really, until this case came into fruition.”
“It’s not what I did for the company,” said the son, who has insisted his interests lie mainly in “pouring concrete” — constructing and operating properties. He said that while he knew the company had financial documents, he “was not personally aware of the statement of financial condition”.
State lawyer Andrew Amer then showed him 2013 emails from then-Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney. He explained to Eric Trump, then in a different role at the company, that he was “working on your father’s statement of financial condition” and needed information on one of the company’s properties.
Eric Trump, second from left, appears at the fraud trial for his father, former President Donald Trump, at New York Supreme Court.
In another email that year, McConney said he was “working on the notes to Trump’s annual financial statement” and asked Eric and others for an update on any major construction work that had recently been started.
“Yes, I know Jeff McConney does financial statements for my father,” Eric Trump said, shifting back in his chair. Soon after, he sprang into his answer about the company being a “massive real estate organisation”, his voice rising as he spoke.
After pointing out emails and documents that indicated Eric Trump had answered McConney’s requests, Amer asked the witness to concede that he was, in fact, “very familiar” with the financial statements.
“I just don’t think it would have registered,” Eric Trump said, portraying the messages as answering an accounting colleague’s request for a property description. “I don’t really care where it’s being used. I care about providing them information from the department that I’m running.”
Donald Trump Jr. earlier gave evidence that, despite James’ allegations, he still believed his father’s financial statements were “materially accurate.” His father has said that, if anything, the numbers listed on the documents low-balled his wealth.
Echoing evidence from the previous day, Trump Jr insisted he dealt with the financial statements only in passing — signing off on them as a trustee for his father’s trust and providing them to lenders to comply with loan requirements. He reiterated that he did so while relying on assurances from company finance executives and an outside accounting firm that the information was accurate.
“If they assured me in their expert opinion that these things were fine, I would’ve been fine with that and signed off accordingly,” he said.
Answering questions for a second day, Trump Jr also revealed that gaming giant Bally’s recently paid their company $60 million to buy the right to operate a public golf course in New York City. The terms of the lease transfer for the former Trump Golf Links Ferry Point in the Bronx hadn’t previously been disclosed.
Outside the courthouse, Trump Jr told reporters he thought his evidence went “really well, if we were actually dealing with logic and reason, the way business is conducted.”
“Unfortunately, the attorney general has brought forth a case that is purely a political persecution,” he said. “I think it’s a truly scary precedent for New York for me, for example, before even having a day in court, I’m apparently guilty of fraud for relying on my accountants to do, wait for it: accounting.”
