Former President Donald Trump will soon — again — face questioning from the team of New York state Attorney General Letitia James, who is continuing to pursue her civil case against the ex-president and individuals close to him that alleges a years-long pattern of business fraud.
This time, the ex-president will be questioned on the stand on November 6, which is the start of next week. His questioning will come after three adult children of his also appear on the stand, a list including Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka. Donald Jr. and Eric remain named in the case and thereby potentially subject to possible penalties. Ivanka, meanwhile, lost late last week in an attempt to get out of complying with stated wishes from James’ team for the ex-president’s daughter and former White House team member to answer questions at trial. Ivanka’s team unsuccessfully pointed to her personal departure from New York — she now lives in Florida — among supposedly compelling factors.
Donald’s questioning by James’ team is sure to be wide-ranging. Already, testimony at trial has included a high-profile appearance by the former president’s ex-personal lawyer Michael Cohen, who argued that Trump had essentially — though indirectly — communicated a push for stated values for various assets of his to be artificially inflated, constituting alleged misrepresentations of value underlying James’ case.
In a notable example of the trends at work, the Trump team repeatedly claimed a personal residence of the ex-president at Trump Tower in New York was some three times larger than its actual size! Now, in public commentary, Trump is claiming Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort, is among the highest valued properties in the entire world. Evidence doesn’t support this. After the earlier claims from Cohen, during which he initially seemed to some to contradict himself as he argued that the ex-president had relayed that ambition but done so without specificity, the Trumps’ corner sought a quick decision from the judge essentially handing them a win. Presiding Judge Arthur Engoron denied this push, pointing out there was still plenty of other evidence in the case.
