The Trump show is returning to New York this week, as another probe of the former president’s business dealings by a Democrat prosecutor who vowed to “get” him proceeds.
Trump is due back in New York Thursday to be deposed in a $250 million civil suit brought by state Attorney General Letitia James. The appearance comes just one week after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg formally charged Trump in connection with the alleged Stormy Daniels “hush money” payments.
“This case is complex, but it is not complicated,” Judge Arthur Engoron said last month of the civil suit. “Essentially, it all boils down to whether (Trump’s) statements of financial interest are true or false.”
James claims Trump and others at his Trump Organization deceived lenders and insurance companies by inflating the value of his assets in order to get loans for his real estate and resort business, then undervaluing them for tax purposes. James is seeking to recover more than $250 million in “ill-gotten gains” and to bar the Trumps from doing business in New York. Engoron has set a trial date of October 2.
Trump, who is expected to fly into New York on Wednesday, has already been deposed once in the case last August, when he reportedly invoked the Fifth Amendment repeatedly.
Trump faces a third legal case in New York, in a civil defamation suit brought by writer E. Jean Carroll, who accuses the former president of raping her some 30 years ago and defaming her by denying it. The judge in that case asked both parties to inform the court in writing by April 20 if they intend to be present for the trial.
The deposition is not likely to attract as much attention as the April 4 arrest and booking of Trump, who pleaded not guilty to a 34-counts of falsifying business records, allegedly to hide payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about a 2006 tryst. Trump claims the fling never happened and that his former fixer, Michael Cohen, acted on his own in paying off Daniels.
Legal experts have criticized Bragg’s case, saying that the falsification of business records would normally be misdemeanors, and Bragg’s legal theory to elevate them to felonies by claiming the payments were a campaign expense is a reach.
Like Bragg, James campaigned on a pledge to prosecute Trump, who she once called an “illegitimate president.” Trump has called James, who is black, a “racist in reverse.”
“I will never be afraid to challenge this illegitimate president,” James said in a 2018 video during her successful campaign to be attorney general. “I believe that this president is incompetent. I believe that this president is ill-equipped to serve in the highest office of this land. And I believe that he is an embarrassment to all that we stand for.”