President Trump on Thursday answered questions for 7 hours during a second deposition in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ witch hunt.
Letitia James in September announced a lawsuit against former President Donald Trump and his family.
AG James has been investigating whether the Trump Organization inflated values of some of its properties.
Letitia James said her office is seeking to:
- Make Trump pay $250 million.
- Ban the Trumps from running NY businesses for good.
- Ban Trump and Trump Org from buying commercial real estate in NY for 5 yrs.
- We’re making a criminal referral to the US Department of Justice
“With the help of Donald Jr., Eric, Ivanka, and other defendants, Trump variously unlawfully inflated and deflated his net worth by billions to obtain and satisfy loans, get insurance benefits, and pay lower taxes. In short, he lied to gain massive financial benefits for himself,” Letitia James said in September.
“We found that Trump, his family, and the Trump Org used fraudulent and misleading asset valuations over 200 times in 10 years on his annual financial statements. These statements were then used to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars in loans and insurance coverage,’ she added.
Trump on Thursday blasted “racist” Letitia James and accused her of leaking the time of his arrival to New York City.
“I will be heading downtown to meet with a Racist who leaked that I would be there at 9:30 A.M. The leak makes it much more difficult for the Police and Secret Service to do their job. This civil case is ridiculous, just like all of the other Election Interference cases being brought against me. If I had a fair judge, this case would have never happened. MAGA!” Trump said earlier Thursday morning.
Trump’s lawyer Christopher Kise blasted Letitia James for her witch hunt.
“The transactions at the center of this case were wildly profitable for the banks and for the Trump entities,” Kise said, according to the AP. “When the facts of this success, and not politically engineered soundbites, are out in the open, everyone will scoff at the notion any fraud took place.”
AP reported:
Former President Donald Trump answered questions for nearly seven hours Thursday during his second deposition in a legal battle with New York’s attorney general over his company’s business practices, reversing an earlier decision to invoke his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination and remain silent.
The Republican met all day with lawyers for Attorney General Letitia James, who sued Trump last year. Her lawsuit claims Trump and his family misled banks and business associates by giving them false information about his net worth and the value of assets such as hotels and golf courses.
Shortly after Trump entered the Manhattan skyscraper that houses James’ offices, his attorney, Alina Habba, said he was “not only willing but also eager to testify.”