Pedestrians and a food delivery man are seen outside the Trump building on Wall Street, in New York’s Financial District, March 23, 2021. AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File
In newly public testimony, Donald Trump boasts about building a multibillion-dollar brand and saving “millions of lives” as president.
He spars with the New York attorney general suing him for fraud, telling Letitia James “the whole case is crazy” and accusing her staff of trying to trip him up like TV lawyer Perry Mason did to witnesses.
Trump gave seven hours of sworn testimony in April as part of James’ lawsuit, which accused the Republican and his company of defrauding banks, insurers and others with annual financial statements that inflated the value of assets and boosted his net worth by more than $2 billion in some years.
Trump’s lawyers posted a transcript of his deposition in a flurry of court filings Wednesday, ahead of a possible October trial.
Here are the highlights:
A ‘TERRIBLE THING’
Trump decried James’ lawsuit as a “terrible thing,” telling her and her staff “you don’t have a case.”
He insisted the banks she alleges were snookered with lofty valuations suffered no harm, got paid in his deals and “to this day have no complaints.”
“Do you know the banks made a lot of money?” Trump asked. “Do you know I don’t believe I ever got even a default notice and, even during COVID, the banks were all paid. And yet you’re suing on behalf of banks, I guess. It’s crazy. The whole case is crazy.”
Banks “want to do business with me because I’m rich,” Trump told James. “But, you know what, they’re petrified to do business because of you.”
Trump complained New York authorities “spend all their time investigating me, instead of stopping violent crime in the streets.”
He said they’d put his recently jailed ex-finance chief Allen Weisselberg “through hell and back” for dodging taxes on company-paid perks.
“Now I have to…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply