Failed, one-term, twice-impeached former President Donald Trump has been notified that he will have to sit for a sworn deposition in the civil fraud case against him in New York.
The Washington Post reports:
New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking a deposition from former president Donald Trump early next year as part of her investigation into potential fraud inside the Trump Organization, according to people familiar with the matter.
James has requested to take his testimony on Jan. 7 at her New York office as part of a civil investigation into whether Trump’s company committed financial fraud in the valuations of properties to different entities, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the inquiry is ongoing.
One of the people familiar with the investigation said James is examining whether widespread fraud “permeated the Trump Organization.”
Notified of the deposition date, a spokesperson for the Trump Organization used one of the ex-president’s favorite invocations whenever he’s being investigated:
“This is another political witch-hunt,” the statement said, noting that James is running for governor next year. “The only focus of the New York AG is to investigate Trump, all for her own political ambitions … This political prosecution is illegal, unethical and is a travesty to our great state and legal system.”
James is clearly turning up the heat on Trump, who is also under criminal investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. Vance suspects Trump and his company inflated the value of real estate assets in order to get larger loans from lenders and later devalued those same properties to avoid paying the required taxes. Bank and tax fraud are just two of the crimes under investigation by Vance.
The former president’s son, Eric, has given a deposition in the fraud investigation being conducted by James. He originally refused to sit for a deposition but later relented. That deposition was given in October of last year, shortly before American voters booted the Donald Trump from the White House and replaced him with President Joe Biden.
The danger of Trump giving a deposition cannot be overstated, according to biographer Tim O’Brien, who has written extensively about the ex-president:
“He can’t be scripted, and he’s injudicious, and he often doesn’t understand that the process is about events and facts, rather than being performance art.”