Donald Trump Jr. cracks jokes, draws courtroom laughter during 75-minute testimony at $250M fraud trial
Donald Trump Jr. took the witness stand in a Manhattan courtroom Wednesday to defend himself in the $250 million civil fraud trial that threatens his dad’s real estate empire — firing off several jokes as he denied working on the financial statements that are key to the case.
Don Jr., 45, is a defendant alongside his father, his brother Eric and the family real estate company in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ ongoing trial alleging that Donald Trump inflated the value of his assets for years to get better loan and insurance terms from banks, saving him hundreds of millions of dollars.
“I did not,” the former president’s eldest child said when asked if he had ever worked on his father’s “statement of financial condition” — documents that James alleges Trump falsified from 2011 through 2017 by pumping up his net worth to the tune of billions per year.
“The accountants worked on it, that’s what we pay them for,” Don Jr. said.
“I was not involved in the compilation of this statement of financial condition,” he later added.
During the testimony — which lasted for roughly 75 minutes Wednesday and featured James observing from the front row — Don Jr. joked that he has “no understanding” of accounting lingo.
“I rely on professionals and CPAs. We pay millions of dollars and [they] have great degrees,” he said, drawing laughter from the courtroom gallery.
He also got into a round of banter with Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron and AG lawyer Colleen Faherty about the pronunciation of the word “revocable.”
Faherty asked Don Jr. what the “Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust” was, prompting Engoron to interject: “Now that we finally have a trustee in the courtroom, we can finally ask if it is revocable or revocable.”
“Your honor, it’s a good question, but I’m not sure which is actually correct,” Don Jr. answered.
Faherty then asked a question using the pronunciation revocable, to which Don Jr. joked, “I’m not sure what that is, I only understand revocable” — prompting yet more chuckles from the gallery.
At one point, the judge asked Faherty and Don Jr. — who was talking a mile a minute — to slow down so the court stenographer could keep up.
“I apologize, Your Honor, I moved to Florida but I kept the New York pace,” Don Jr. jovially responded.
“We noticed,” Engoron replied.
Don Jr. delivered his first quip before taking the stand at around 2:50 p.m., saying, “I should have worn makeup” as a group of news photographers took his picture.
He answered many questions about the hierarchy of power at the Trump Organization, including explaining that his brother Eric and he were on equal footing in the family real estate empire from 2011 through 2017.
“We were on a similar plane,” Trump Jr. said. “We had our own silos and we tried to stick to that.”
“I focused a lot on our international business, our hotel company, development of new licensing deals and such. I could have done anything and everything,” he added.
Then in 2017, when Trump, 77, took office as president, power transferred completely to the two eldest brothers and to then-Trump Org chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, Trump Jr. explained.
Weisselberg eventually left the company because of “some legal issues he got into,” Trump Jr. said, referring to Weisselberg’s arrest, eventual conviction and brief jail stint for tax fraud.
The trial is in its fifth week and is expected to last through December.
Eric is expected to take the witness stand Thursday after the conclusion of his brother’s questioning.
The former president is set to be called to testify on Monday and daughter Ivanka is scheduled for Wednesday, as the AG’s final witness.
Trump’s side has 128 potential witnesses listed — though it isn’t known how many of those will actually be called.
Ivanka had previously also been a defendant until an appeals court dismissed her because of the statute of limitations.
Engoron wouldn’t let her out of taking the witness stand, finding that her testimony was still relevant. She could try to appeal that ruling before Wednesday to try to get out of having to show up in person to court.
Earlier Wednesday, two other witnesses were called including former Trump Org. vice president David Orowitz and a state investment banker expert witness.
Michiel McCarty, the chairman and CEO of an investment bank and the state’s sole expert witness, said banks lost out on $168 million because of Trump’s alleged padding of his assets.
He said that because of this, Trump was given lower interest rates by banks, saving him the $168 million and therefore causing the banks to lose out on the same amount.
The courtroom was tense as Trump’s lawyers cross-examined McCarty, with Engoron repeatedly urging them to move the questioning along and repeatedly reminding them to phrase questions in the positive form rather than the negative.
“I can see why this line of questioning is going to take two or three hours,” Engoron said. “Please stop making one question into four or five.”
But Trump’s lawyer Christopher Kise balked at Engoron’s interruptions and said McCarty is a crucial witness for cross-examination.
“This witness is the only witness they have that even hints at ill-gotten gains,” Kise said. “We need to challenge his credibility and memory. I don’t understand why we always get interrupted, it’s becoming a bit of a pattern, respectfully.”
