Trump grilled for 7 hours in AG Letitia James’ state fraud case

Former President Donald Trump was grilled for practically seven hours Thursday throughout his second deposition within the $250 million civil case introduced towards him by New York Legal professional Common Letitia James.

Trump, 76, was “not solely keen but in addition desirous to testify” throughout the assembly with James’ legal professionals who questioned him about his firm’s companies practices, his legal professional Alina Habba stated because the Republican headed into the legal professional common’s Manhattan workplace.

“He stays resolute in his stance that he has nothing to hide, and he appears ahead to educating the Legal professional Common in regards to the immense success of his multi-billion greenback firm,” Habba stated.

The openness to speak is a staunch reversal from Trump’s earlier deposition within the civil case final yr when he invoked his Fifth Modification rights tons of of instances with a view to stay silent and keep away from self-incrimination.

James claimed Trump and three of his youngsters lied to banks about his web price and overvalued his belongings together with his resorts and golf programs by billions.

Forward of the deposition, Trump referred to as James “a Racist” and stated the civil case was absurd.

“This civil case is ridiculous, identical to all the different Election Interference circumstances being introduced towards me,” he wrote on Reality Social. “If I had a good decide, this case would have by no means occurred. MAGA!”

Trump arrived by motorcade to James’ workplace round 9:40 a.m. and was seen leaving simply earlier than 6:16 p.m.

A lawyer for Trump’s enterprise stated the Republican presidential contender spent practically all seven hours “describing intimately his extraordinary enterprise success.”

“The transactions on the heart of this case had been wildly worthwhile for the banks and for the Trump entities,” legal professional Christopher Kise stated. “When the information of this success, and never politically engineered soundbites, are out within the open, everybody will scoff on the notion any fraud occurred.”

The lawsuit James introduced towards the ex-president is scheduled to go to trial in October if the go well with isn’t settled earlier than then.

Trump was within the Massive Apple simply eight days earlier when he was arraigned on 34 felony fees in a separate felony probe trying into “hush cash” funds made on his behalf.

With Put up wires