Donald Trump will in the end not testify | EUROtoday
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IHe has “nothing more to say”. While he was scheduled to testify Monday in his personal protection on the civil trial for monetary fraud, Donald Trump modified his thoughts and declared Sunday that he wouldn’t take the stand.
The 77-year-old former president posted a shock message on the Truth Social community, saying he had “already testified to everything” within the ongoing trial towards him, his eldest sons Donald Jr and Eric and different Trump Organization executives.
The latter are accused of getting colossally inflated throughout the 2010s the worth of the skyscrapers, luxurious inns or golf programs on the coronary heart of his empire, to acquire extra favorable loans from banks and higher insurance coverage situations.
Trump denounces a “witch hunt”
Since the beginning of the trial on October 2, the Republican billionaire has railed towards justice every time he involves court docket, denouncing a “witch hunt” or a “trial worthy of banana republics”. After assaults on his clerk, the decide banned Donald Trump from talking about his crew and imposed two fines totaling $15,000 for violating the order.
Unlike the felony trials that await him in 2024, together with that for his alleged maneuvers geared toward reversing the results of the November 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump doesn’t danger jail time on this civil case.
But he’s enjoying massive and issues are off to a foul begin. Even earlier than the opening of the proceedings, Judge Arthur Engoron estimated on the finish of September that the prosecution introduced “conclusive evidence that between 2014 and 2021, the defendants overvalued the assets” of the group by “812 million (to) 2, 2 billion dollars” relying on the 12 months, within the figures recorded on Donald Trump’s annual monetary statements.
The prosecution calls for 250 million {dollars}
As a results of “repeated fraud”, he ordered the liquidation of corporations managing these property, such because the Trump Tower on fifth Avenue in New York or the just about century-old skyscraper at 40 Wall Street. Measures suspended on enchantment.
The trial considerations a number of different offenses, similar to insurance coverage fraud, and monetary penalties sought by the New York State Attorney General’s Office, which is looking for $250 million. Donald Trump’s legal professionals denounce an empty file.
They guarantee that actual property evaluations are essentially subjective and that the banks, duly reimbursed, have carried out good monetary operations. In latest weeks, witnesses referred to as by the protection, together with a present and a former govt at Deutsche Bank, one of many lending establishments, have gone on this course.
But in line with one other funding banker, the boss of MM Dillon & Co., Michiel McCarty, the banks might have determined to set larger rates of interest if they’d had at their disposal a much less rosy image of the monetary state of affairs of Donald Trump. He estimated curiosity losses at $168 million from 2014 to 2023, a calculation disputed by the protection.
https://www.lepoint.fr/monde/proces-pour-fraudes-financieres-donald-trump-ne-temoignera-finalement-pas-11-12-2023-2546480_24.php#xtor=RSS-221