Trump sons deny knowing of financial statements at heart of $250m fraud trial

Trump’s eldest sons claimed on Thursday that they had no knowledge of the financial statements at the heart of the family’s $250m fraud trial.

Eric and his older brother Donald Trump Jr claimed in court that they had relied on accountants and others to make sure their financial records were correct.

But lawyers for the New York attorney general presented evidence that the two brothers had been presented with paperwork that suggested they had prior knowledge of statements a judge has ruled “clearly contain fraudulent valuations”.

Eric Trump’s comment came as lawyers quizzed the brothers about their knowledge of the financial statements that prosecutors argue prove the Trumps were instrumental in a scheme to inflate the family’s perceived wealth for financial gain.

“I never had anything to do with the statements of financial condition,” Eric Trump testified.

In a sometimes tetchy exchange, Eric Trump was asked about emails that showed subordinates asking for information about Trump’s financial reports. “Hi Eric, I’m working on your dad’s annual financial statement,” read one email from Jeffrey McConney, the Trump Organization’s former controller, asking for details about a Trump property.

Eric Trump consistently denied specific knowledge and said he was “not very familiar with my father’s statement of financial condition”. At one point Eric Trump said “we’re getting tripped up” and said he had not realized at the time that he was being asked for information related to financial statements.

“People in the company have conversations with you all the time, and you provide them with answers when you can,” said Trump. “I think I was 26 years old,” he added. “I was not aware of it, I never worked on it, and I didn’t know about it until this case came into fruition.”

The prosecutor Andrew Amer produced various documents that he claimed disputed that assertion. Another email from McConney had the subject line “F/S” in it, which stands for “financial statement”. Amer pointed out that McConney was explicitly asking Eric Trump about the financial statement.

“You would have understood at the time you received this email that your father had an annual financial statement,” Amer said.

A frustrated Eric Trump quickly answered: “We’re a major organization, a massive organization. I’m certainly aware that we have financial statements, absolutely.”

Earlier in the day prosecutor Colleen Faherty, who questioned Trump Jr, showed the court a series of documents , including an email that a Forbes factchecker sent to the Trump Organization that was eventually forwarded to Trump Jr.

Trump has spent decades fighting with Forbes about the publication’s assessment of his wealth. Last month he demanded an apology after Forbes dropped him from its list of the 400 wealthiest people in the US.

In the email, Forbes pointed out that the Trump Organization had told the magazine that Trump’s triplex apartment in Trump Tower was about 33,000 sq ft, but Forbes cited documents that showed the apartment was actually just under 11,000 sq ft.

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“Insane amount of stuff there in regards to the Forbes inquiry,” Donald Jr wrote to other Trump Organization executives in response to the inquiry.

Faherty then showed a letter the Trump Organization sent to their accounting firm, Mazars USA, which was compiling the organization’s 2016 statement of financial condition.

In the letter, the Trump Organization had affirmed its responsibility of “fair presentation” in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP. Donald Jr repeated his assertion that he relied on Mazars to provide them the information and that the accounting firm was “intimately involved” with the preparation of the statement.

Donald Jr and his brother Eric are the first family members to testify in the case brought by the New York attorney general, Letitia James. Donald Trump will testify on Monday and his daughter Ivanka is expected to take the stand later in the same week.

James’s investigation found the Trumps cooked their books for decades, inflating Trump’s wealth to obtain loans on better terms.

James is calling for the Trump Organization to pay back $250m in alleged ill-gotten gains. The court has moved to terminate the Trumps’ business licenses – a move that would end their ability to do business in the state. That decision is on hold as the Trumps appeal the decision.

Judge Arthur Engoron has already ruled that the Trump Organization committed fraud. The trial will determine the penalties he will impose.

In a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, James said: “Donald Trump lied about his net worth on his statements of financial condition to get loans for much better terms than he should have. It’s that simple.”

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