Eric Trump Friday railed on the $250 million civil fraud case against his family after concluding testimony at the Manhattan trial — where he showed up in nearly identical clothes for two days in a row.
Eric Trump, 39, testified for roughly four-and-a-half-hours spread over Thursday and Friday, where he appeared in Manhattan Supreme Court in what appeared to be the same dark navy blue suit, light blue tie, white dress shirt, brown oxford shoes and even the same printed light blue socks.
Outside of the courtroom after, Trump blasted New York Attorney General Letitia James — who is prosecuting the case — and the judge deciding it, echoing his dad Donald’s claims that the trial is a political witch hunt.
“This is a big charade that is a huge waste of taxpayer money and it’s the very reason everyone’s moving out of New York state, and I was actually one of them,” Trump told a gaggle of reporters.
“It’s a joke, it’s an absolute joke,” he said, claiming James was using the case to bolster his career.
The former first son was adamant about his innocence and confident that his family would prevail at trial.
“Guys, we’re going to win this thing,” Trump said. “I promise you we’re going to win it because we haven’t done a damn thing wrong.”
He told reporters that his father was “certainly” going to show up to court on Monday to testify.
“He is very fired up to be here,” the former president’s middle son said. “He thinks this is one of the most incredible injustices he has ever seen, and it totally is.”
On Thursday, in a series of posts on Truth Social, Donald Trump, 77, blasted the judge, the AG and the case, claiming his sons were being “persecuted.”
Eric Trump’s testimony followed his brother Don Jr.’s roughly three hours on the stand on Wednesday and Thursday and is expected to be followed by the former commander in chief’s testimony on Monday and their sister Ivanka’s on Wednesday.
The two elder Trump sons, their dad and the family real estate company are all defendants in the AG’s lawsuit accusing Donald of lying on annual financial statements for a decade, inflating his assets to the tune of billions a year for better loan and insurance terms.
Both Don Jr., 45, and Eric claimed under oath that they weren’t involved in their father’s yearly statements of financial condition. Though Don Jr.’s tact on the same was banter and deflection during questioning by the AG’s office while Eric took a much more serious and, at times, aggressive tone with the AG prosecutor.
“I never had anything to do with the statement of financial condition,” said Eric, an executive vice president at the Trump Organization, on Thursday. “People ask me questions all the time but I never worked on the statement of financial condition.”
Similarly, Don Jr. on Wednesday said: “I was not involved in the compilation of this statement of financial condition.”
The two elder Trump brothers both said they relied on accountants and lawyers to ensure that anything they signed was accurate and Eric said he didn’t even know what the statements were until the AG brought he case.
But AG lawyer Andrew Amer spent a great deal of time confronting Eric with email and other evidence suggesting that he knew about the statements of financial condition as early as 2013 and helped formulate valuations for certain Trump Org. properties.
On Thursday night, an appeals court judge denied Ivanka Trump’s bid to get out of testifying next Wednesday.
Ivanka earlier this year was dismissed from the case by an appeals court that found any involvement she had in the alleged fraud was beyond the statute of limitations. But Engoron said her testimony was still relevant and ruled she must testify in person.
Both before and after Eric’s testimony Friday, Trump lawyer Christopher Kise claimed that the judge was biased against his client and said he was concerned that there were allegedly two people deciding the case — the judge and his court clerk.
Kise said he was considering seeking a mistrial over the alleged bias, claiming that he was troubled by the fact that Engoron was receiving notes throughout the trial from his law clerk. He also claimed that a news report surfaced about “partisan political contributions made by certain members of your staff.”
When Engoron asked where the report came from, Kise said, “I think it’s on Breitbart” — prompting groans from the courtroom.
But Engoron eventually told Kise — who’d also brought up the issue of bias on Thursday afternoon — to stop speaking about it in court and make a motion.
“I am saying, on the record, I will continue to receive notes from my staff,” Engoron responded. “If you want to make a motion at this point, go ahead and do it.”
Kevin Wallace, a lawyer with the Attorney General’s Office, piled on, agreeing that Kise should simply file a motion over the issue instead of continuing to raise it at trial.
“This sideshow of talking about the clerk is designed to interrupt our ability to put in evidence,” Wallace said. “If there is something improper about a judge and clerk passing notes, you should make your motion now.”
On Thursday afternoon, Engoron grew angry when Kise raised the topic banging his hands on the bench and yelling, “Confidential communications from my clerk? You don’t have any right to see it or question it.”
Engoron warned that he would expand a limited gag order barring Trump from publicly speaking about his court staff to include Trump’s lawyers too if they spoke about the law clerk again.
Earlier in the trial, Trump posted a photo on Truth Social of the clerk with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), baselessly saying she was “Schumer’s girlfriend” and adding that she was “running this case against me.”
Afterward, Engoron issued a limited gag order barring Trump from publicly speaking about any of his court staff.
The judge has since determined that Trump has violated the order twice, fining him a total of $15,000.