Trump Jr: I have no understanding of accountancy
Trump’s eldest son has testified in the fraud case against the family firm, saying he couldn’t recall details of its legal arrangements or accounting principles.
Donald Trump’s eldest son testified in the fraud case brought against the family firm last night (Wednesday), describing his role in the business but repeatedly saying he could not recall details of its legal arrangements or accounting principles.
Donald Trump Jr, 45, was the first member of the Trump family to give evidence in the case, though his father was summoned briefly to the witness stand last week after Judge Arthur Engoron suspected that he had breached a court order.
Hours before his testimony, his father addressed the judge on his social media platform, saying: “Leave my children alone, Engoron. You are a disgrace to the legal profession!”
Trump, his sons Don Jr and Eric, and his company are accused of inflating the value of his assets to obtain better deals from lenders, in a dollars 250 million lawsuit brought by the attorney-general of the state of New York. They deny the allegations.
Donald Jr is to be followed, as a witness, by his brother Eric, and by their sister Ivanka and Trump himself next week. He said he joined the Trump Organization shortly after the 9/11 attacks in 2001 and rose to become a vice-president. Between 2011 and 2017, he was on an equal footing to Eric and Ivanka, reporting to their father and sometimes answering to the chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, he said.
His father had stepped back from the company in 2017, leaving him and Weisselberg as trustees, he said. Weisselberg stopped working for the company in 2021. Colleen Flaherty, a lawyer for the state of New York, asked why this was.
“The specific event was that he was indicted,” Donald Jr replied.
His father had resumed a role as a trustee of the company in 2021, he said. Asked who was responsible for a financial statement in 2017, he said: “As a trustee I have an obligation to listen to those who have an expertise in those things.” He said that he trusted Weisselberg and Mazars, the firm that prepared their accounts, “if they put something forward, if they tell me that it’s accurate based on their accounting assessment”, he said. “These people had an incredibly intimate knowledge and I relied on that.”
Donald Jr arrived in the mid-afternoon, taking a seat between two of the defence lawyers.
He then advanced to the witness stand, dressed in a blue suit, a pale-blue shirt and a pink tie, and sat very erect as Colleen Flaherty, an attorney for the state of New York, asked him about his education at Wharton business school, his father’s alma mater, and his qualifications. He was a licensed real estate broker, he said. Trump International Realty had sponsored his licence.
“Are you familiar with the term GAAP,” Flaherty asked.
“I understand what it stands for,” he replied. “Generally Accepted Accountancy Principles.”
How did he know this? she asked.
“I believe that was accountancy 101, back in the late Nineties,” at Wharton, he said.
“Anything else in your understanding?”
“No,” he replied. “That’s what you have CPAs [certified public accountants] for.”
Asked if he had other qualifications or memberships of accountancy bodies, he replied: “Sounds exciting, but no.”
She continued to ask him all the things he did not know about accounting, until Judge Engoron intervened. “That’s another negative question: ‘Fair to say you have no understanding?’ ” the judge complained. All day he had been asking lawyers to avoid them.
Donald Jr interrupted, beaming. “I have no understanding,” he said.
The Times
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