Eric Trump will not testify at his father’s fraud trial against the Trump Organization on Wednesday despite being scheduled to take the stand for over a week.
“I told my wonderful son, Eric, not to testify tomorrow at the RIGGED TRIAL,” Donald Trump wrote late on Tuesday night in a rant against the trial. Trump said that his son “already testified PERFECTLY”.
“There is no reason to waste any more of this Crooked Court’s time on having him say the same thing, over and over again, as a witness for the defense (us!). His young life has already been unfairly disturbed and disrupted enough on this corrupt Witch Hunt.”
Trump also confirmed in the post that he would take the stand on Monday. He is expected be the last witness to testify at the trial.
Eric Trump’s appearance was supposed to be the first time a member of the Trump family has been on the stand since 13 November, when Donald Trump Jr appeared as the defense team’s first witness.
During his second time on the stand, Trump Jr spent much of his time extolling the “sexiness” of the Trump Organization’s assets, giving what at times felt like a real estate presentation.
Eric Trump last took the witness stand in early November when he denied involvement with various financial documents and appraisals, including ones he had signed off on or was consulted about. Eric Trump, along with his father and older brother, Donald Trump Jr, is a defendant in the trial.
The trial, which kicked off 2 October, is starting to wind down as the last of the former US president’s witnesses take the stand.
At stake for the family business is a $250m fine for illegally inflating the value of assets on state financial documents in order to boost Donald Trump’s net worth. Judge Arthur Engoron is the sole decider of the case, which does not have a jury. Engoron issued a pre-trial ruling in September that, if accepted by an appeals court, will see Donald Trump lose his business licenses, making it nearly impossible for the Trump family to conduct business in New York.
After four weeks of witness testimony, Trump’s team has been trying to build its case that he had latitude when valuing his assets and that it was ultimately the responsibility of Trump’s accountants and lenders to ensure accuracy.
Trump has argued the company’s financial statements contained a clause that made them “worthless” and that they were unimportant to the banks making loan decisions. Engoron has already struck down that argument but Trump’s team has continued to return to it.
“These bankers were paid back in full, there was no harm, no anything, everybody got their money in full,” Trump said when he last took the witness stand on 6 November. “The banks don’t even know what they’re doing in this case.”
Trump is reportedly planning to attend the trial on Thursday. He has not made an appearance in court since he took the witness stand nearly a month ago.
Trump has attacked the case, the judge and his staff throughout the trial and has been pushing the limits of a gag order Engoron issued against him. Last week, Trump criticized Engoron’s wife, who has played no role in the trial, calling her the judge’s “Trump hating wife” on Truth Social.
