As jury selection begins in a criminal trial of the Trump Organization for tax fraud, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, has taunted Donald Trump with being too cowardly to testify in another legal challenge bearing down on him.
The House speaker goaded the former president in an MSNBC interview over the subpoena that was served on Friday, ordering him to testify under oath before the committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack. “I don’t think he’s man enough to show up,” Pelosi said.
Trump has been given until 4 November to produce numerous documents demanded by the House committee relating to his efforts to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, which culminated in the Capitol insurrection. He is then expected to be called before the panel on or about 14 November.
“I don’t think his lawyers will want him to show up because he has to testify under oath. We’ll see if he’s man enough to show up,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi’s acerbic comments were made as Trump’s legal problems appeared to be closing in on him. On Monday, jury selection began in a criminal trial brought by the district attorney of Manhattan.
It accuses the Trump Organization – the former president’s business conglomerate – of a range of crimes including tax fraud and handing out undeclared perks to senior executives. Trump is not charged personally in the case, which is expected to last a month, but could be affected by reputational damage to his company.
The case has been brought by the Manhattan DA, Alvin Bragg. The star witness is likely to be Allen Weisselberg, the chief financial officer of the Trump Organization.
Weisselberg pleaded guilty in August to accepting off-the-books untaxed perks, including rent, car payments and school tuition. He secured a plea deal in which a possible maximum 15-year prison sentence has been reduced to five months in exchange for his cooperation with prosecutors.
Lawyers for the Trump Organization are expected to argue in court that Weisselberg arranged the perks on his own behalf without any complicity from the company.
Among the documents that Trump has been ordered to turn over to the January 6 committee are all records of phone calls and texts sent or received by the former president on the day of the US Capitol attack. The committee has also specifically requested any communications between Trump and the far-right extremist groups the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.
It remains to be seen whether Pelosi’s prediction that Trump will duck an appearance before the committee proves to be accurate. He has indicated he would willingly testify but with the proviso that he does so in live proceedings.
Over the weekend Liz Cheney, the Republican vice-chairperson of the committee, rebuffed the idea of a live Trump spectacle. She told NBC News the committee would treat the event “with great seriousness”.
“Trump’s not going to turn this into a circus,” Cheney said.
The trial of the Trump Organization emerged out of a criminal investigation launched by the Manhattan DA into whether Trump fraudulently distorted his company’s assets and earnings to reduce his tax burden and secure preferable deals with banks and other lenders. Bragg pulled back in January from charging Trump personally, leading to the resignation of two top prosecutors in protest.
Two Trump Organization entities – the Trump Corporation and Trump Payroll Corp – are implicated in the trial. They face possible fines of up to $1.7m (£1.5m), which is a relatively tiny amount for the conglomerate, but a conviction could have knock-on effects for future business.
Trump still faces a civil lawsuit over the fraud allegations that were brought by the attorney general of New York state, Letitia James, last month. The suit accuses Trump of inflating his net worth by billions of dollars and seeks to bar the former president and his three eldest children from serving as business executives in New York.
