New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) is preparing to call former President Donald Trump and three of his adult children to the witness stand in his upcoming civil fraud trial.
Slated for a trial start on Oct. 2, Trump and his company, the Trump Organization, stand accused of engaging in years of fraud by overstating the values of assets, including resort properties such as Mar-a-Lago, in his annual financial forms.
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The 45th president, along with Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump, are among 28 names on James' list of fact witnesses that could be called in the case.
Other names on James's list include Trump's former fixer and personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, and the former chief financial officer for his business, Allen Weisselberg.
Defendants in the case created their own list of 128 witnesses, which also includes Trump and his two eldest sons.
The set of lists was filed Wednesday to New York Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron, who one day earlier ruled that Trump and his company were liable for fraud in how they valued their real estate properties and other assets.
Engoron also stripped Trump and the Trump Organization of business certifications, throwing the former president's ability to do business in the Empire State into jeopardy. Several of his attorneys were also sanctioned for making frivolous arguments, according to the judge's decision.
Trump has also directly sued Engoron himself, saying that he ignored an appeals court ruling in June that they said should have effectively gutted the case. Trump's team argued the judge ignored a key deadline that should have disqualified much of the evidence used in James's lawsuit.
Alina Habba, one of Trump's attorneys, hit out at Engoron's determination on the value of some properties, specifically Engoron's finding that the Florida club, Mar-a-Lago, was grossly overvalued.
Engoron held that from 2011 to 2021, the Palm Beach County assessor appraised the market value of Mar-a-Lago at $18 million to $27.6 million, which stood in stark contrast to Trump's financial statements that put the club's value at almost $427 million to $612 million.
James is seeking $250 million in penalties, and the defendants will still face a trial on the remaining causes of action before the judge, including conspiracy to falsify records, insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, issuing false financial statements, and conspiracy to falsify false financial statements.
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Attorneys for the former president want the court to delay the trial's start next week and order Engoron to implement the June ruling that they think would defang the case. An appeals court is expected to rule his lawsuit against the judge as soon as Thursday.
Read James's witness list below: