“Thats false” and one “Witch hunt”he deplored trump before the press. “What is happening here is an attempt to harm me in the election,” added the former president of the United States, favorite in the Republican primaries to return to the White House in next year’s elections.
Dark blue suit and sky blue tie, with a sullen face, the 77-year-old tycoon spent part of the audience talking to lawyers, Chris Kise and Alina Habba, who flanked him on the bench accused in the ancient courtroom of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, in front of Arthur Engoron, the scathing investigating judge of the case, which could last three months.
In the second row, to his right, sat the fiscal from New York, Letitia James, who initiated the investigation against the family business of the magnate and two of his children, donald Jr. and Eric, the Trump Organization.
“Justice will prevail,” warned the prosecutor African-American Democrat, whom the magnate accuses of being “racist.”
They ask that Trump pay US$250 million
James is seeking $250 million in damages from the defendants and a ban on the father and two sons from ever running a business in New York State.
Although he cannot be sentenced to prison for this accusation, the civil trial against Trump is just a preview of the long series of cases that await him in the courts and that threaten to disrupt his electoral campaign, although not his popularity.
The candidate is criminally charged in four other different cases, which for the moment have not made a dent in his popularity among the Republican base.
“I will vote for him even if he shoots someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue,” Dion Cianei, 54, told AFP outside the courthouse. Nearby, several dozen New Yorkers demonstrated against Trump. One poster denounced: “How many lawyers does it take to ruin democracy?”
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Trump’s defense denied wrongdoing
At the trial, the defending recalled that the “president built one of the real estate empires most prosperous on the planet” and “denied that there had been any accounting irregularity.” nor “fraud.”
“This is not about any plot but about doing business,” said his lawyer. Alina Habba.
The prosecution’s attorney, Kevin Wallace, recalled that the fraud has been legally established and that the people sitting on the bench “they had inflated their assets between 812 and 2.2 billion dollars per year” between 2014 and 2021, as Judge Engoron ruled last week, who accepted as valid the prosecutor’s investigation that had demonstrated the existence of “continued fraud.”
Consequently, The judge ordered the revocation of business permits in New York State both for Donald Trump and his two sons, executive vice presidents of the Trump Organization, as well as the confiscation of the companies subject to the lawsuit, which will be entrusted to liquidators.
In addition to corroborating the ruling and establishing damages, in the trial – without a jury – the real value of the tycoon’s fortune can be determined.
Hard setback against Trump
Are sanctions would be “a serious blow to the ability of donald trump doing business in the state of NY”, according to Will Thomas, professor of business law at the University of Michigan.
Donald Trump, who made his fortune in the real estate and casinos in the 80s, he would then lose control of several of his group’s emblematic buildings, such as Trump Tower, on 5th Avenue in Manhattan.
According to the prosecution, the surface area of the businessman’s apartment in Trump Tower tripled and building of number 40 on Wall Street was overvalued among 200 and 300 million dollars in the financial statements.
The Trump Organization’s luxurious Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida and several golf courses also appear in the dossier.
On his Truth Social platform, Trump has defended that the lending banks have been repaid “in full, with interest, without defaults and without victims.” The defense also intends to fight tooth and nail over the valuation of the assets.
The trial promises to be quite technical, and dozens of witnesses are expected to testify, including three of Trump’s children, Eric, Donald Jr and Ivanka – who was also initially targeted by the complaint but who was ultimately not indicted – — and former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, who served prison time after pleading guilty to tax fraud in another case against the group.
The witnesses also include the former lawyer of donald trump Michael Cohen, who has become one of his declared enemies, as well as employees of the lending banks.
Source: Ambito
