“Welcome back,” Justice
“I’d say it’s good to be be here but I’m afraid the attorney general would sue me for perjury,” Donald Trump Jr. responded, eliciting laughter from the courtroom audience.
The trial, now in its second month, is one of six Trump is facing as he campaigns to return to the
During his testimony, Donald Trump Jr., an executive vice president at his father’s company, sought to buttress the family’s defense that the values they put on their portfolio of properties weren’t inflated as the state alleges, but merited. He called his father the architect of the Trump brand whose value was unparalleled, and described Trump Organization properties as “spectacular,” “world class” and even “sexy.”
He said his father “saw a lot of things ahead of time” to create his real estate empire. “Real estate is oftentimes a locals game,” the younger Trump said. He said his father had “real vision” and that “a lot of great real estate companies wanted to come to us to learn how to design, build monetize their projects.”
Donald Trump and Eric Trump, both of whom testified earlier in the trial, may reappear for the defense as well.
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Here are some of the key parts of Donald Trump Jr.’s sworn testimony.
- As magazine-worthy images of the interiors and exteriors of Trump properties were displayed on large courtroom monitors — from glittering ballrooms to gleaming golf courses bathed in the afternoon light — he said his father “saw a lot of things ahead of time” to create his real estate empire. “He saw incredible value in the Trump brand,” the younger Trump said. Trump’s defense case hinges on the argument that valuations of his properties can be subjective.
- Under questioning from lawyers, Trump Jr sought to paint his father as the architect of brand whose value was unparalleled in the industry and among competitors, claiming the Trump Organization was unique. “Most real estate companies do commercial office space, or they do rental apartments or the manage golf clubs or manage hotels or they build hotels. We do all of those things, including retail. We’re one of the few companies who has all classes of assets in the bucket.”
- He called condominiums at Trump World Tower “sexy,” a word he used more than once to describe other Trump assets. He also cited renovations of properties like the Doral golf resort in Florida as examples of how his father was “able to create and generate that value, which is part of his magic.”
- He provided a primer in the family’s decades-long business history, describing how his great grandfather made a fortune during the Klondike Gold Rush and grandfather developed apartments in Brooklyn and Queens. But it was Donald Trump who saw Manhattan as “the ultimate frontier,” his son said, honing in on the theme that the value of these properties was historic. Building the Trump Tower on Manhattan’s 5th Avenue in the 1980s paved the way for similar buildings in New York, he said. “I know other buildings of the era, and this was certainly a project I know with conversations with great developers — they called it ‘genius’ — that really set the stage for my father,” he said.
- While the attorney general alleges Trump’s Los Angeles golf course was over-valued by almost $50 million, Donald Trump Jr. focused his testimony on praising the beauty of the course and its views of the Pacific Ocean, highlighting the perceived worth of the properties in a different light. “Didn’t the 18th hole fall into the ocean?” state lawyer Colleen Faherty asked him during cross-examination. “Yes,” Donald Trump Jr. said.
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Steve Stroth
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