Trump denies accusations of overinflating group assets
Claiming “political trial to ruin the 2024 presidential election campaign”
Trump’s massive real estate holdings revealed during trial
Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s defense team announced on the 27th (local time) that he plans to appear as a witness in the second trial next month, following the previous time he gave belligerent testimony as a witness in a civil trial on fraud charges.
Christopher Kais, a lawyer for the defense team, said Trump’s scheduled appearance date is the 11th of the 12th.
In his first testimony on the 11th and 6th, Trump delivered an impassioned speech against questions about the value of his companies, accusations that he inflated the assets of banks and insurance companies and misled them into believing they were higher, and threats that his companies would have no future in New York.
Trump, who is a leading Republican presidential candidate in 2024, denies all charges. At the same time, he used his first opportunity on the witness stand to criticize the prosecution itself and did his best to fiercely criticize the prosecution itself by New York State Attorney General Letitia James.
“People don’t realize how great the company I built is,” Trump said in response to a question from Secretary James’ subordinate prosecutor. Because people like you go around disparaging and harming me. “This is a ‘witch hunt’ conducted for political reasons,” he claimed.
He harshly criticized Minister James as a political prosecutor and called the pre-trial review of him a “fraud on behalf of the court.”
But Trump’s next testimony is expected to be a much more expensive trial. During the first testimony, James’ prosecutors mainly asked questions, but in the next testimony, cross-examination will be conducted by lawyers hired by Trump.
Trump’s lawyers plan to conduct cross-examinations that will cover much more and broader topics than the last time prosecutors questioned them.
When Donald Trump Jr., Trump’s son and vice chairman of the Trump Organization, took the stand this month, he praised his father and insisted that the Trump family’s business dates back to the late 1800s. Through a spectacular slide show, he showed off his lavish wealth by showing the grandeur of Trump buildings, spacious golf courses, elegant banquet halls, and luxury apartments on the rooftop.
Next, the second son, Eric Trump, will also testify for the defense on December 6. Both sons have undergone preliminary investigation and interrogation by prosecutor James.
Now entering its second month, the trial is focusing on shining a light on the real estate that Trump has accumulated. That wealth made him a public figure and eventually led him to enter politics.
Trump is not giving up on his claim that Attorney General James, a Democrat, is continuing the trial to ruin his 2024 presidential campaign.
The core of this trial is statements and documentary evidence regarding the Trump Organization’s annual financial conditions from 2014 to 2021. These have been used for various purposes, including borrowing funds from the Trump Organization.
A Trump Organization executive testified at the trial on the 27th that they are no longer making such records or affidavits public. When asked why he doesn’t use them, he said it’s because no banks or lenders require them anymore.
Trump continues to argue that the value of his group’s assets was underestimated, not inflated, and that he would not have been able to bring the charges if other groups or investigators had investigated the company’s financial condition.
Judge Arthur Engoron is expected to make the final ruling in the trial without a jury, but has already found Trump and the defendants guilty of fraud out of the value of the property. The remaining trial process is to uncover additional crimes, such as whether there were accomplices in the process or whether insurance or company-related records were falsified.
James’s prosecutors asked the judge to ban Trump from doing any more business in New York and impose a fine of more than $300 million. The judge ordered that companies or individuals that acquired Trump assets retain ownership of them, and the order is expected to be upheld in an appeals trial.
[뉴욕= AP/뉴시스]
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.