Eric Trump claims he knew nothing about financial statements before stumbling in testimony

New York, New York - Eric Trump took his brother's place on the witness stand Thursday at the family's Manhattan fraud trial - telling the court that he didn't know "anything" about his dad's financial statements before later saying he "absolutely" did.

Eric Trump took his brother's place on the witness stand Thursday at the family's Manhattan fraud trial.
Eric Trump took his brother's place on the witness stand Thursday at the family's Manhattan fraud trial.  © POOL / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP

Donald Trump's middle son, described in the New York attorney general's case on trial as overseeing "all aspects of management and operation" at the Trump Organization, denied ever being involved in statements used in business deals that falsely bloated his dad's net worth.

"As I said, I am unaware of the statements of financial condition," Eric testified shortly after taking the stand in Manhattan Supreme Court. "I didn't know anything about it until this case came into fruition."

But those statements were called into question when state lawyer Andrew Amer pulled up emails that he said showed former Trump Org. controller Jeff McConney "expressly" informed Eric of the statements a decade ago when valuing Seven Springs, Trump's Westchester estate, which Eric primarily oversaw and where he lived for a time with wife, Lara.

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Eric didn't deny the validity of the correspondence.

"So you did know about your father's annual financial statements as of [August 2013]?” Amer asked, to which Eric replied, "It appears that way, yes."

"And he told you that he needed to value Seven Springs for that annual financial statement?”

"That's what it says, yes."

Pressed on his knowledge of the statements' existence about 45 minutes into his testimony, Eric lost his cool.

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Eric Trump claimed he did not know "anything" about the fraudulent financial statements before being pressed about emails that indicated otherwise.
Eric Trump claimed he did not know "anything" about the fraudulent financial statements before being pressed about emails that indicated otherwise.  © REUTERS

"We're a major organization, a massive real estate organization," he testified, sounding sarcastic. "Yes, I'm fairly sure we have financial statements… Absolutely."

Eric said he may have provided information that went into the statements Judge Arthur Engoron determined were fraudulent even before the trial started.

But he said it didn't "register" with him what the figures were being used for.

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Trump, his oldest sons, and former executives Allen Weisselberg and McConney are accused in the AG Tish James' case of plotting to balloon the value of his assets by billions to illegally profit in business deals from 2011 until the final year of his presidency.

Judge Engoron, in a pretrial ruling based on uncontested evidence, found Trump and his top execs committed widespread fraud for submitting the bogus numbers in business deals from 2014 to 2021, ordering them stripped of certificates required to run a business in New York. That will go into effect if the ruling is upheld on appeal.

Eric's assertions mirrored those of his older brother, Don Jr. Wednesday and throughout Thursday morning. The statements exaggerating the value of Trump assets by billions were certified as accurate by Trump's trustees after he became president — Don Jr. and Weisselberg — but the eldest Trump child pinned responsibility on the company's in-house and outside accountants.

"I could have certainly partaken, and I probably would have had the most intimate knowledge about those deals, but it doesn't mean that I used that to put this together," he said. "They did that, and so I could have very well been involved in inferring that number but not specifically know that I was working for that purpose."

Eric Trump was more tense on the stand than Donald Jr.

In the case on trial and the company's criminal case last year, ending in its and Weisselberg's convictions, Trump and his attorneys have sought to blame the Trump Organization's former outside accounting firm, Mazars, and the CPA they dealt with, Donald Bender, for any inaccuracies.

Bender, who has not been accused of wrongdoing, testified at the case on trial and the criminal one that his job was to compile figures Trump gave him when putting together his net worth - not to ensure the information was accurate. He told Engoron, "They were not getting us all the documents."

Eric sounded tense on the stand, declining to make jokes like his brother, who appeared particularly concerned with how he looked, telling veteran courtroom artist and author Jane Rosenberg Thursday morning to "make me look sexy."

Cover photo: DAVID DEE DELGADO / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP

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