Court cases are piling up against Donald Trump. The former US president was heard all day Thursday, April 13 in New York as part of a future civil trial for which he is accused of fraud within the Trump Organization. This hearing comes a week after his landmark indictment in another case.
The 2024 US presidential candidate responded under oath and out of sight at the offices of New York State Attorney General Letitia James, where he arrived around 10 a.m. (4 p.m. CET) , in a black vehicle, found journalists from Agence France-Presse.
Greeted by a handful of supporters and opponents, who were kept at a distance by a security device, the Republican billionaire did not leave the building, located near Wall Street, until around 6 p.m. to return in a black vehicle to the Trump Tower, further north on Manhattan Island.
The Attorney General, elected under the Democratic label, filed a civil lawsuit in September against Donald Trump and three of his children, claiming $ 250 million in compensation and demanding against them prohibitions from running businesses.
Letitia James accuses the Republican billionaire and his children of "staggering fraud", in her words, by "deliberately" manipulating the valuations of the group's assets to obtain better loans from banks or reduce its taxes.
Golf clubs, Trump Tower in New York, Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida… the services of Letitia James listed these disputed assessments in a 222-page complaint, which also targets Donald Trump Jr, Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump. Hearings under oath and in camera may take place as part of the procedure, before the actual start of the trial, currently set for October. Donald Trump has always refuted these irregularities.
On his Truth Social network, he called the case "ridiculous", "like all the other election interference cases I've been subjected to". But the former president sees court cases pile up on the road to the primary for the Republican nomination.
In addition to his historic indictment, criminal this time in early April in New York, Donald Trump also remains in the sights of justice for his alleged involvement in an attempt to turn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia in his favor, and on his role in the storming of the Capitol by his supporters on January 6, 2021.
In his post on Truth Social, Donald Trump also called Letitia James, an African-American prosecutor, a "racist", as he calls Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg, also an African-American, who indicted him a "racist". .
The 76-year-old billionaire had already responded to a summons last August, but had invoked throughout the hearing his right to remain silent, under the 5th Amendment of the American Constitution.
On April 4, Donald Trump was criminally charged with 34 alleged accounting and tax frauds, related to payments to cover up three embarrassing affairs before the 2016 presidential election, including a sexual relationship with porn actress Stormy Daniels. he has always denied. This indictment was a first for a former US president.
