"I did not": Donald Trump Jr testifies in civil fraud trial, says wasn't involved in father's financial statements

New York [US], November 2 : Former US President Donald Trump's eldest son Donald Trump Junior testified in the civil fraud trial on Wednesday and said that he was not involved in preparing his father's financial statements at any point in time, including after he became president, CNN reported on Wednesday (local time).
Trump Jr testified for 90 minutes in the civil fraud trial against the family and their business. He will continue on the stand on Thursday, followed by his brother, Eric Trump.
During his testimony on Wednesday, Assistant Attorney General Colleen Faherty showed Trump Jr the 2017 statement of financial condition, which Judge Arthur Engoron has already ruled is "fraudulent".
"I did not. The accountants worked on it, that's what we pay them for," he said.
Trump Jr also discussed his roles and responsibilities in the Trump Organization since 2001 and as a trustee to the former president's revocable trust.
Notably, Trump Jr. is named as a defendant in the USD 250 million lawsuit brought by the New York attorney general's office against the former president, his company and several executives, including three of his adult children, CNN reported.
The lawsuit accuses Trump Jr. and his brother Eric of knowingly participating in a scheme to inflate their father's net worth to obtain financial benefits like better loans and insurance policy terms.
"As Executive Vice Presidents, the three children were intimately involved in the operation of the Trump Organization's business," the complaint states.
Faherty on Wednesday narrowed in on the licensing developments on Trump's financial statement that year, asking Trump Jr. if he gave the accountants the USD 246 million valuation attached to the licensing deals.
Trump Jr. said he might've discussed the deals with the accounting team because he was the primary person on most of them, but that he did so without knowing they'd use those values in the financial statements.
"I didn't give them a value of USD 246 million. I could have sat there and gone through each one of the deals individually with Allen Weisselberg, Jeff McConney, Donald Bender, and given them an idea of what I believe the cash flow coming from those deals would have been worth, not even knowing it was for the purposes of this," CNN quoted Trump Jr as saying.
In a deposition taken last year, Trump Jr distanced himself from the financial statements Engoron had already ruled to be fraudulent in a summary judgment before the trial began.
"I had no real involvement in the preparation of the Statement of Financial Condition and don't really remember ever working on it with anyone," Trump Jr said.
He added, "Again, people may have asked me about stuff tangentially that I gave them an answer to that they may have then utilized as a basis of knowledge to come up with whatever, but, no, not specifically as it relates to, you know, knowledge about the financial statement".
Donald Trump Jr has worked in commercial leasing for the Trump Org., including the company's 40 Wall Street property at issue in the lawsuit.
Trump Jr. became a trustee of his father's revocable trust when he took office and certified the statements of financial condition in 2017, 2018 and 2019, CNN reported.
He testified in his deposition that he relied on the accounting and legal departments at Trump Org when he signed the paperwork.
Eric Trump, whose name has been invoked at trial in relation to valuations for New York properties like Seven Springs and Briarcliff Manor, is expected to testify after his brother later this week.
Ivanka Trump was originally named in the lawsuit by New York Attorney General Letitia James, but an appeals court dismissed the claims, saying they were too old.
However, the AG's office is still seeking to question Ivanka Trump about her involvement in a number of properties, among other matters, and she is tentatively set to appear in court next week, CNN reported.