Don Jr. and Eric testify in New York, and one of Trump’s Georgia co-defendants argues the 2020 election really was stolen. Keeping up with Trump’s court schedule is a dizzying task, since he faces two federal trials, a criminal trial in Georgia, and a separate civil trial and criminal trial in New York. (Oh, and he’s running for president.) To make things easier, we’ll be recapping the biggest Trump trial news at the end of each week. This week, Donald Trump’s sons took the stand in his New York civil fraud trial, in which they are both co-defendants. Meanwhile, the former president’s attorneys were hard at work trying to delay the Department of Justice’s classified documents case down in Florida. Don Jr. and Eric Trump testify The New York attorney general’s civil fraud trial was really a family affair this week, as both of the former president’s sons—Don Jr. and Eric—denied participating in any scheme to overinflate their father’s net worth and the value of their family’s business. Trump, for his part, was not happy about his kids having to appear in court, posting a late-night Truth Social rant in which he called for Judge Arthur Engoron to “leave my children alone.” Don Jr., the elder Trump brother, was up first to take the stand, deflecting responsibility to Trump Organization accountants throughout his testimony. The AG’s office contends that Don Jr. signed off on company financial statements and thereby was aware of the fraud at play. (Judge Engoron already ruled before the trial began that the company had committed fraud; at issue in the trial is who exactly was responsible, and to what extent.) Don Jr. argued that he had nothing to do with preparing the fraudulent financial documents, and simply trusted the team they had hired when he signed off on them . “The accountants worked on it, that’s what we pay them for,” he said. He denied knowing anything about a spreadsheet the prosecution showed him that was used to prepare the financial statements. When asked if he would say the same thing about spreadsheets used to prepare the statements in other years, he answered, “Rinse and repeat.” (After his testimony Thursday, he also reportedly asked the courtroom sketch artist to make him “look sexy,” according to Insider.) Eric Trump was up next. In his testimony, he echoed his brother, claiming that he never worked on any company financial statements. But when the prosecution showed him an old email where an employee directly asked Eric for information about his father’s financials, Eric acknowledged that he had looked at the spreadsheet being used to prepare Trump’s financial statements, seemingly contradicting his earlier testimony. Later, the prosecutor questioned Eric about a video call that came up in a separate Trump Organization executive’s testimony, in which Eric was allegedly discussing his father’s financial statements. It took place in 2021, after the AG’s investigation had already started, but Eric said he had no memory of such a call. “I get thousands of calls,” he said. Ivanka tried and failed to avoid testifying The former president’s daughter appealed a judge’s order that requires she testify at her father’s New York civil fraud trial—and it was swiftly denied in a short and sweet 11-word decision: “Application for interim stay pending decision on the motion is denied.” Looks like Ivanka will be joining her brothers on the witness stand next week, after all. The former president’s daughter initially argued she’d face “undue hardship” by coming to New York because she is scheduled to appear in court “in the middle of a school week” for her three young children. Plus, she was removed as a co-defendant in the AG’s lawsuit after a judge decided that the claims against her were blocked by the state’s statue of limitations, since she left the Trump Organization in 2016. But since Ivanka worked as the company’s executive vice president from 2005, shortly after graduating from business school, up until her departure, New York AG Letitia James believes she “has firsthand knowledge of issues that are central to the ongoing trial.”
via slate: Keeping Up With the Trump Trials: Here Come the Sons