Molly Crane-Newman | New York Daily News
NEW YORK — Donald Trump was back in lower Manhattan Thursday to sit for a second deposition in the New York attorney general’s $250 million financial fraud case against his family real estate business.
The former president, who was last week charged with 34 felonies related to business fraud, arrived with his motorcade at AG Tish James’ downtown offices on Liberty Street shortly after 9:40 a.m.
Trump took to Truth Social after midnight Thursday, confirming his scheduled deposition and taking aim at James, who he has accused of being racist against him. In the hours before leaving Trump Tower, he accused the AG’s office of leaking his arrival time in more posts, saying it “makes it much more difficult for the Police and Secret Service to do their job.”
“I will be heading downtown to meet with a Racist who leaked that I would be there at 9:30 A.M.,” Trump wrote.
The deposition comes as James’ large-scale fraud case against Trump, his adult children Ivanka, Eric, and Don Jr., and senior company executives — which seeks to drastically alter how the Trumps operate in New York’s real estate market — readies for its upcoming trial in November.
On top of demanding a quarter of a billion dollars in restitution, it seeks to bar the family from running a business in their home state or buying commercial real estate in New York for five years.
The suit accuses Trump’s family business and the people who run it of lying about the value of company assets like golf courses and skyscrapers to reap better loans and tax breaks.
James said Trump exaggerated his net worth by over a billion dollars.
The last time Trump was deposed in the case in August, he took the fifth more than 440 times.
Trump’s criminal New York case accuses him of falsifying business records to conceal an illicit hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election that violated state and federal election laws. Prosecutors say it was part of a scheme to conceal damaging information to better his prospects of winning the presidency. He’s pleaded not guilty to charges carrying a potential four-year prison term.
Trump attorney Alina Habba in a statement Thursday said he is “not only willing but also eager to testify before the Attorney General today. He 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.”
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