Berliner Tageblatt - Donald Trump 'fired up' to testify in New York fraud case: son

The 77-year-old former US president is expected to testify on Monday in the trial in which the Trump Organization is accused of inflating the value of its assets by billions of dollars to obtain more favorable bank loans and insurance terms.

Leaving the Manhattan courtroom after concluding his second day of testimony, Eric Trump denounced the case as a "big charade" and a "huge waste of taxpayer money."

"We've done absolutely nothing wrong," he told reporters. "We have a better company than they could have ever imagined."

Eric, 39, and his elder brother Donald Jr, 45, are executive vice presidents of the Trump Organization, a sprawling network of companies managing residential buildings, office skyscrapers, luxury hotels and golf courses around the world.

Don Jr testified for two days this week and was followed on the stand by his younger brother.

Both brothers adopted essentially the same line of defense -- that company financial statements the authorities allege were fraudulent were drawn up by their accountants and they relied on them for their accuracy.

Eric Trump said his father is "certainly going to be here" to testify on Monday.

"I know he's very fired up to be here," he said. "And he thinks that this is one of the most incredible injustices that he's ever seen."

If the former president does testify, it will be the first time he does so publicly in any of the current civil and criminal cases facing him.

- $250 million -

Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has shown up sporadically since the New York trial began a month ago, using his appearances to portray himself as the victim of what he claims is a Democratic plot to derail his White House campaign.

The former president's daughter, Ivanka Trump, who left the Trump Organization in 2017 to become a White House advisor to her father, is not a codefendant in the case but has also been ordered to testify.

She fought the subpoena but her appeal was rejected and she may have to testify as early as Wednesday.

Judge Arthur Engoron, who is presiding over the case, has already ruled that Trump, his sons and other executives of the Trump Organization committed fraud and the trial is being held to determine penalties and potential sanctions.

Trump and his sons do not risk going to jail, but face up to $250 million in penalties and potential removal from the management of the family company.

The civil fraud trial is one of several legal battles Trump faces as he seeks to recapture the presidency.

He is to go on trial in Washington in March for conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and in Florida in May on charges of mishandling top secret government documents.

The twice-impeached former president also faces racketeering charges in Georgia for allegedly conspiring to upend the election results in the southern state after his 2020 defeat by Democrat Joe Biden.

F.Pavlenko--BTB