Trump civil fraud case: Judge fines Trump $354 million, says frauds 'shock the conscience'
The former president was found to have defrauded lenders.
Former President Donald Trump has been fined $354.8 million plus approximately $100 million in interest in a civil fraud lawsuit that could alter the personal fortune and real estate empire that helped propel him to the White House. In the decision, Judge Arthur Engoron excoriated Trump, saying the president's credibility was "severely compromised," that the frauds "shock the conscience" and that Trump and his co-defendants showed a "complete lack of contrition and remorse" that he said "borders on pathological."
Engoron also hit Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump with $4 million fines and barred all three from helming New York companies for years. New York Attorney General Letitia James accused Trump and his adult sons of engaging in a decade-long scheme in which they used "numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation" to inflate Trump's net worth in order get more favorable loan terms. The former president has denied all wrongdoing and has said he will appeal.
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Summary of penalties
Donald Trump and his adult sons were hit with millions in fines in the civil fraud trial and barred for years from being officers in New York companies. The judge said the frauds "shock the conscience."
Donald Trump: $354 million fine + approx. $100 million in interest
+ barred for 3 years from serving as officer of NY company
Donald Trump Jr.: $4 million fine
+ barred for 2 years from serving as officer of NY company
Eric Trump: $4 million fine
+ barred for 2 years from serving as officer of NY company
Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg: $1 million fine
+ barred for 3 years from serving as officer of NY company
+ barred for life from financial management role in NY company
Former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney:
+ barred for 3 years from serving as officer of NY company
+ barred for life from financial management role in NY company
Eric Trump appears to contradict deposition
After acknowledging in his testimony that he provided Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney with information for his father's statement of financial condition, Eric Trump was shown video from his own deposition where he appeared to contradict his testimony in court.
"I have no recollection of ever providing Jeff material to be used in a statement that I've ever seen," Eric Trump said in the deposition he gave state attorneys during their probe.
"I don't think it would have ever registered" what the material was for, Eric Trump said in court today, responding to his own statement during his deposition.
Eric Trump clarifies testimony about email
Eric Trump clarified his earlier answer regarding his involvement in his father's statement of financial condition, in which he was asked if he recalled a 2013 email from then-Trump Organization controller Jeff McConney asking him for notes for the statement.
"I clearly understood I sent notes to Jeffrey McConney," Eric Trump testified.
"I don't think that it ever registered [that] it was for a personal statement of financial condition," he said.
Eric Trump acknowledges email about financial statement
Eric Trump responded angrily when a state attorney questioned his previous statement that he was unaware that information he provided was being used in his father's statement of financial condition.
"We're a major organization. A massive real estate organization," Eric Trump said, raising his voice, before acknowledging he was aware of his father's financial statements, which are at the center of the case.
State attorney Andrew Amer pressed Eric Trump about a 2013 email in which then-Trump Organization controller Jeff McConney told Eric Trump, "I'm working on the notes to Mr. Trump's annual financial statement..."
"Is it correct that when you received this email in August of 2013, you understood that your father had an annual financial statement and you understood that Mr. McConney was asking you for information to assist with notes for that financial statement?" Amer asked.
"Yes," Eric Trump said.
Judge is 'hurting my very good children,' Trump says
Former President Trump took to social media to criticize Judge Engoron after Donald Trump Jr. yielded the witness stand to his brother Eric.
"Engoron is a wacko who is having a great time endlessly sanctioning, fining, & pushing around 'TRUMP,' hurting my very good children, & working to damage & defame me," the former president wrote on Truth Social.
As he he left the courthouse following his testimony, Trump Jr. told reporters, "I think it went really well, if we were actually dealing with logic and reason."
He reiterated that he relied on the Trump Organization's accountants to put together the financial statements at issue, and that he was not responsible for their contents.
"Before even having a day in court, I'm apparantly guilty of fraud for relying on my accountants to do -- wait for it -- accounting," Trump Jr. said. "You pay experts millions of dollars to be experts, you sign off on what they give you, and you're liable?"
Trump Jr. pressed about departure of ex-CFO
Donald Trump Jr. struggled to answer questions when pressed about why former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg departed the family's firm.
"Because some legal issues he got himself into," Trump Jr. said, declining to offer specifics about Weisselberg's guilty plea on tax evasion charges last year.
Previously giving lengthy answers to questions about his background and even smiling with the judge, Trump Jr. appeared tense on the witness stand as he answered questions about Weisselberg.
"The specific event was he was indicted," Trump Jr. said.
He added that when began working for the Trump Organization as an executive vice president in the 2010s, Weisselberg outranked him. Trump Jr. would seek Weisselberg's approval for certain business decisions such as refinancing loans.
"Who is above you in your role as an executive vice president in the Trump Organization?" state attorney Colleen Faherty asked.
"Obviously I would have reported to my father in that period of time … people like Allen Weisselberg would have still been senior to me," Trump Jr. said of that time period.
Trump Jr. said he gained more responsibility in 2016 when his father became president and he was named a trustee of his father's revocable trust. He said that he, Weisselberg and his brother Eric Trump became a kind of triumvirate running the Trump Organization.
"We stopped reporting to my father on decisions involving the business," Trump Jr. said.
That relationship broke down once Weisselberg got himself into "legal issues," Trump Jr. said. He testified that he could not recall the circumstances of Weisselberg's exit, including the multimillion-dollar severance deal that Weisselberg received, which Weisselberg faced questions about during his own testimony earlier this month.
"I have no knowledge of the specifics of how it happened. He is no longer working at the Trump Organization," Trump Jr. said of the former CFO.