Nov 3, 2023
Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump get called out for lying by New York Attorney General Leticia James after their testimonies in the Donald Trump New York fraud civil trial go off the rails in the courtroom. Rayyvana and Brett Erlich break it down on The Damage Report.
- 8 minutes
Don JR was back on the stand today to
testify in the New York civil fraud trial.
But this time, he had his failed brother
at his side, co defendant Eric Trump.
Now, we've said it before, but
I think it bears repeating that
the Trump Organization has already
been found to have committed fraud.
[00:00:17]
This is a trial to
determine the punishment.
And if you didn't know that,
maybe you don't watch TYT that often, but
if you didn't know that, that's okay,
because Donald Trump and his Republican
allies have put in a lot of effort to
ensure that you didn't know that, right?
That's been their mission, is to ensure
that people don't know that they've
[00:00:36]
already been found to
have committed fraud,
to make people think that this is
the trial to determine whether or
not they've committed fraud, and not just
a trial to determine the punishments.
With that, take a look.
Here is New York Attorney General
Letitia James breaking down
[00:00:53]
the testimony from Don JR and Eric Trump.
>> Speaker 2: We just concluded day
22 of our trial against Donald Trump,
the Trump Organization,
and other defendants.
Today we heard testimony from
Donald Trump's sons and co-defendants,
Donald Trump Jr. And Eric Trump.
[00:01:09]
As a trustee of the Donald J,
Trump Revocable Trust, Donald Trump Jr.
often made financial and business
decisions on behalf of his father.
He testified that he signed multiple
documents confirming the accuracy of
Donald Trump's statements
of financial condition and
[00:01:25]
the Trump Organization's
compliance with loan terms.
But those documents were not accurate,
and he knew it.
In fact, just a week after he was
confronted with the truth that his
father's triplex was three times
smaller than the statement of
financial conditions that it was,
Donald Trump Jr. continued to lie.
[00:01:43]
He certified to the family's accountants
that all the information he sent them was
accurate, including the value
of the falsely enlarged triplex.
Next, Eric Trump took the stand and
insisted that he had never heard about his
father's statements of financial
condition before our investigation,
[00:02:01]
he told us his job was
just to pour concrete.
>> Speaker 1: [LAUGH] And
I can't wait to get into the Eric Trump
bit because it's so funny.
It's so funny.
But let's get into some more details
on this, starting with Don Jr.
who continued to say,
he doesn't remember the specifics of
[00:02:19]
several documents he was
presented with in court.
So, from NBC News, he said that
he relied on the accounting team,
which included Allen Weisselberg,
who was the company's CFO,
and would ask all relevant
parties information the documents
[00:02:39]
was correct, and
then he would sign off on them.
Asked about a loan document from it,
but added,
I'm sure I've signed dozens of
these in my life as trustee.
I feel like I have to say something
about what I said yesterday on the show,
[00:02:55]
because I saw some comments that
misconstrued what I thought was
pretty obviously tongue in cheek.
I joked that the first thing I learned in
law school was that ignorance of the law
is the best defense.
And that's obviously the defense
being presented by Don Jr,
I saw some people taking that seriously.
[00:03:11]
It was a joke, not a defense.
That is what he's trying to present is,
but not legal advice.
Don't pretend you didn't know the law or
say you didn't know the law,
just as a way to try to avoid liability.
Okay, that being said, let's talk about
Eric, who I think his situation was almost
[00:03:30]
even more comical than Don Jr.
So he testified that he never worked on
the Trump Organization's statement
of financial condition and
didn't know anything about it
until this case came to fruition.
From NBC News.
He said, I was 26 at the time.
I don't think I ever saw or worked on
a statement of financial condition.
[00:03:48]
I don't believe I would
have known about it.
Not what I did, not what I did.
But what he did do was get quite angry and
raised his voice a bit as
the Attorney General's office pressed him
about his father's financial statements.
So on to that.
[00:04:03]
Asked about a reference that he had made
in a decade-old email that distribution
of a summary of their personal
finances should be limited, he said,
you wouldn't want 1200 people
to see your personal finances.
Asked if the document he was trying
to limit was a statement of financial
condition, a financial statement he
testified he didn't know anything about.
[00:04:21]
Eric seemed agitated and said, I was
not personally aware of the statement
of financial condition, and I did not work
on a statement of financial condition.
He was then shown an email sent to
him by a Trump employee from 2013,
telling him, the employee needed
information from Eric Trump to help
[00:04:37]
put together his father's
statement of financial condition.
Asked by the Attorney General again if
he knew about the statement, Eric said,
it appears that way.
So what he's doing is taking on
the second best line of defense,
which is to lie on the stand.
To lie on the stand.
[00:04:55]
>> Speaker 3: Yeah, this is great.
So I have not seen video of it.
I don't think we have any.
But essentially in the trial,
they say that between the two sons,
you saw two different
ways to comport yourself.
You had Donald Trump Jr.
who was just I don't,
[00:05:11]
I don't really remember, I don't,
I don't think that was the case.
Like, cool, calm, collected, clueless.
And then you had Eric Trump, who's like,
come on, I don't, I just pour concrete.
As if that guy's Rosie
the riveting himself out,
[00:05:28]
like we could do it, and just, like,
tipping concrete at the job site.
And so essentially yes,
what ended up happening.
Letitia James basically
summarizes what I've also seen,
which is that through a very
difficult line of questioning,
[00:05:44]
and I say difficult because it
was apparently very difficult for
the prosecutor to kind of get
Eric Trump through all of it.
By the end,
Eric Trump did kind of cop to the fact
that he doesn't just pour concrete.
[00:05:59]
And if that was his position, he'd be
admitting he is the worst executive
vice president of any
organization in history,
because he just doesn't know how much
stuff costs and how much stuff is worth.
So it's so hilarious.
Almost as hilarious as the name
of the Donald Trump Trust,
[00:06:17]
which is the Donald Trump Revocable Trust,
which is the most succession mind
game you can play with your kids,
where it's like, listen,
Junior, at any minute, gone.
I take the trust,
my trust, not your trust.
[00:06:34]
And I think that kind of
mind game has created
these little weird
monsters in his two sons.
>> Speaker 1: And I love it.
I love the little bit of the dynamic
between him and his sons.
Like, from reports about the time he
slapped Don Jr. for not putting on a suit
[00:06:52]
when he was taking him to a Yankees game,
slapped him in his face in front of all of
his friends at his college DORB, and then
told him to put on a suit and walked away.
I'm sorry, these are losers, right?
The fact that the trust wasn't
revoked is astounding to me.
[00:07:09]
How did they prove themselves to you,
Donald Trump?
What did they do?
>> Speaker 3: I mean, but it just stands.
I've talked to actual human beings who
are like, listen, who believe this?
It is impressive when the children don't
lose every cent that was given to
them by their billionaire father.
[00:07:29]
Now, they try really hard in this family,
and I'm talking extended family,
including Jared Kushner, who oversaw the
literal worst real estate deal in history.
But the difference for you and me is,
if we lose it, we just lose it.
And for them, they just have a much larger
runway and more leeway when they make
[00:07:48]
a huge, horrible decision that
Daddy will not revoke the trust.
He'll just slap them around a little bit.
>> Right, and unlike Jared Kushner,
when we're in financial trouble,
we can't just put a property up,
list a property, and
have some member of the Saudi
royal family buy it from us.
[00:08:05]
It would be interesting for me to know
what amount of the trust is going to
Don Jr's cocaine fund and if it's possible
to blow all that money on cocaine alone.
And you know what?
We'll keep you all updated forks [LAUGH].
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The Damage Report: November 3, 2023
Hosts: Rayyvana Guests: Brett Erlich
- 7 minutes