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Trump to testify under oath in fraud lawsuit / Photo: MANDEL NGAN - AFP/File
Trump to testify under oath in fraud lawsuit
Donald Trump was due back in New York Thursday to answer questions in a civil case that accuses the ex-president and three of his children of business fraud.
The deposition comes a week after Trump's historic arraignment on criminal charges in a Manhattan courtroom in a separate case.
The 76-year-old Republican was due to be questioned under oath in the lawsuit brought by New York state attorney general Letitia James, the New York Times reported.
Trump himself appeared to confirm the deposition, his second in the case, in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
He said would be "heading downtown to meet with a Racist who leaked that I would be there at 9:30 AM."
Trump has repeatedly called New York prosecutors who are Black and investigating him racist.
James sued Trump, Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump in September last year alleging they committed "incredible" fraud at the Trump Organization.
Her lawsuit asserts that they lied to tax collectors, lenders and insurers for years in a scheme that routinely misstated the value of Trump's properties to enrich themselves.
James said they provided fraudulent statements of Trump's net worth and false asset valuations "to obtain and satisfy loans, get insurance benefits, and pay lower taxes."
Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for the 2024 White House race, has used his common refrain of "witch hunt" to describe the case.
He appeared for six hours of questioning in the case last August, shortly before James filed her lawsuit.
In a dramatic court appearance last Tuesday that transfixed the nation, Trump denied 34 felony counts related to hush money paid to a porn star.
He became the first former or sitting president to ever be charged with a crime. The prosecution was brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
James has requested that Trump pay at least $250 million in penalties -- a sum she says he made from the alleged fraud -- and that his family be banned from running businesses in the state.
No criminal charges can stem from her case.
A.Harris--SMC
