New York: Former President Donald Trump sat through an hours-long deposition with the New York attorney general’s office in connection to a lawsuit filed by the state accusing him and his family of engaging in fraud to enrich themselves, CNN reported citing a source familiar with the matter.
The report said on Thursday that Trump answered numerous questions during a nearly seven-hour long deposition with state prosecutors.
New York Attorney General Letitia James was in the room for a portion of Trump’s deposition, the report said.
A Sputnik correspondent spotted Trump leaving his deposition Thursday afternoon.
Trump’s attorney Alina Habba told CNN that the former US president “remains resolute in his stance that he has nothing to conceal, and he looks forward to educating the attorney general about the immense success of his multi-billion dollar company.”
In September 2022, James filed a lawsuit against Trump, his children, Ivanka and Eric Trump, and senior executives at the Trump Organization for “acts of fraud and misrepresentation.” James alleges that Trump and others falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to influence banks’ decisions to lend money to the Trump Organization on more favorable terms, among other benefits.
In addition, the lawsuit also alleges that between 2011 and 2021, Trump and his organization “knowingly and intentionally” created more than 200 false and misleading valuations of assets on his annual statements of financial condition to defraud financial institutions.
Trump previously provided an hours-long deposition in August, weeks before James filed the lawsuit. Trump called James’ probe politically motivated and “a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt of all time.”
Trump was in New York City earlier this month for an arraignment in a criminal case charging him with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree in connection to his alleged involvement in a $130,000 hush money payment and subsequent cover-up involving a purported affair with adult film actress Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign. Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges, which prosecutors elevated from misdemeanors to felonies by arguing that the fraud was linked to violations of election and tax laws.
Trump also faces three additional investigations in connection with his purported role in the January 6 riot, his handling of classified documents at his Florida home, and alleged interference with the 2020 Georgia election results.
