On Thursday, former President Trump traveled to a different New York City courtroom where he had to answer questions under oath for close to “seven hours.” The testimony relates to a business fraud case that the state of New York has brought against Trump.
Earlier this month, Trump was arrested and charged in a Manhattan court on 34 counts of falsifying business records in order to hide a hush money payment. This case does not relate to the most recent testimony that Trump has had to provide.
Instead, Trump had to answer questions relating to a civil case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James who claims that Trump, his children, and his organization repeatedly inflated the assets of his organizations in order to benefit from better loans and other funding opportunities.
James seeks a $250 million penalty as a way of dealing with Trump’s unaccounted profits that resulted from this practice. James has also called for Trump to not be allowed to do business within the state of New York again.
The Trump Organization, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump, are all defendants in this case. Trump’s latest deposition is a part of the discovery phase prior to the trial. The content of the deposition is set to remain private, but according to Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba, he refused to answer any questions by invoking the Fifth Amendment. This protects defendants from answering questions that could potentially incriminate them.
