Donald Trump Jr. is expected to arrive Wednesday at a Manhattan courthouse to testify in the $250 million civil fraud trial against his family and their company — as the former president warned the judge to “leave my children alone.”
Don. Jr’s appearance will likely be followed in the coming days by testimony from two of his siblings and even former president Donald Trump.
Trump took to Truth Social early Wednesday ahead of his son’s testimony to bash the “rigged trial” and tell Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron to “leave my children alone.”
In his 2:30 a.m. rant, Trump insisted he is the victim since his former attorney Michael Cohen admitted that he lied while testifying last week. The ex-president maintained he did not tell Cohen to inflate values on his financial statements before calling the trial a “hoax” and a “fake case” and saying it should be dismissed.
New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Trump, 77, his two eldest sons, and the Trump Organization for allegedly inflating the ex-president’s assets for years by billions to get a leg up on loan and insurance terms.
The Trump foursome is expected to be called as witnesses in the case — with Eric Trump expected to testify on Thursday, the ex-president on Monday and Ivanka Trump on Nov. 8.
Ivanka, 41 — a businesswoman and mom of three who was previously an executive vice president at the family real estate empire — had been a defendant in the case but was dismissed after an appeals court found her testimony fell outside of the statute of limitations.
However, despite efforts by Ivanka’s lawyers that she not be required to testify, Engoron said she must physically appear at the lower Manhattan courthouse to be questioned under oath.
Don Jr. and Eric still both serve as executive vice presidents at Trump Org and will presumably be grilled by AG lawyers about the extent of their involvement in helping their dad pump up his assets for roughly a decade.
The 2024 presidential hopeful and Eric have appeared in court on several days during the trial. Defendants in civil cases are not required to appear in court as they would be in a criminal case.
In a dramatic courtroom scene last week, Trump faced down and glowered at Cohen, his one-time “fixer” and personal lawyer.
Cohen, 57, testified against his boss claiming that Trump — speaking “like a mob boss” — strongly implied that Cohen and ex-Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg pad Trump assets to reach Trump’s desired net worth.
“He tells you what he wants without specifically telling you,” Cohen said. “We understood what he wanted.”
In a surprise turn of events Wednesday, Trump was briefly called to the stand himself to answer Engoron’s questions about whether Trump violated the judge’s limited gag order barring the real estate tycoon from speaking about court staff.
After the brief hearing, Engoron fined Trump $10,000, finding he violated the order by mentioning his court clerk — whom Trump previously took a stab at on his platform Truth Social, prompting the gag order in the first place.
Trump was fined $5,000 two weeks ago for violating the order.
Later Wednesday after being fined, Trump stormed out of the courtroom before muttering “unbelievable.”
Trump has repeatedly denied the claims he faces and has accused the judge and the AG — who has attended much of the trial — of carrying out a political witch hunt against him.
Testimony is also expected Wednesday from David Orowitz, who was the senior vice president of acquisitions and development at the Trump Organization.
