The Forbes editor said he testified before the Trump grand jury

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NEW YORK >> The editor of Forbes magazine testified Thursday before a grand jury hearing of evidence in a criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump and his business practices, answering questions about an article that examining whether the former president increased his wealth.

Forbes editor Randall Lane wrote in a post on the business magazine’s website that he was asked about articles he wrote in 2015 about Trump’s adjustment to his ranking on the magazine’s annual list of richest people.

Lane said deputy wealth editor Chase Peterson-Withorn also testified, briefly answering questions about a 2017 article he wrote about the size and value of Trump’s apartment in the Trump Tower.

Lane’s disclosure is the clearest indication that Manhattan prosecutors investigating Trump are focusing on whether he committed fraud by augmenting his wealth, not only with Forbes but with banks to get more favorable loan terms.

The investigation has already led to tax fraud charges in June against Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, and its longtime head of finance, Allen Weisselberg. They were accused of evading taxes on beneficial benefits paid to executives.

Lane said he was questioned for about 20 minutes by Mark Pomerantz, a former mafia prosecutor who helped with the investigation, and asked to confirm various things, including the magazine’s list procedure of the richest Americans and the statements. by Trump in the article “I look better if I’m worth $ 10 billion than if I’m worth $ 4 billion” and the higher net worth “is good for financing.”

Pomerantz also asked about Trump’s claims, reported in the 2015 article, that his assets in the Trump Tower were worth five or six times higher than the magazine’s $ 530 million estimate and that the his apartment is worth at least twice the $ 100 million valued by the magazine. , says Lane. The editor said Peterson-Withorn testified for nearly five minutes and was specifically asked about Trump’s claim that the apartment was 33,000 square feet.

Messages seeking comment were left with Trump’s attorney.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment.

Presenting his testimony, Lane said he and Peterson-Withorn have been fighting subpoenas for their testimony since September, expressing concerns that testifying about a news topic would damage their freedom of the press. and will have a frightening effect on the resources that provide them with information.

Lane said the judge presiding over this grand jury limits the scope of their questioning to confirming the accuracy of articles about Trump. Lane said everything he and Peterson-Withorn testified to has already been revealed in their articles, writing: “If we sat down on anything worthy of news, we would have already shared that with our readers.”

Although the grand jury proceedings were secret, nothing prevented the witnesses called before them from speaking about their testimony.

Prosecutors began looking at how Trump and his company valued their assets after Trump’s longtime personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen told a congressional committee in 2019 that the developer-turned-politician has a tendency to manipulate property values.

Cohen said Trump will raise amounts to get favorable loan terms and reduce them to reap tax benefits.

Cohen provided a Congressional committee with copies of Trump’s financial statements from 2011, 2012 and 2013 – statements he said Trump gave to his main lender, Deutsche Bank, to inquire about a loan to buy the Buffalo Bills of the NFL, and to Forbes to prove his claim to a place on its list of the richest people in the world.

Trump will “get into a riot” when Forbes and Fortune compile their annual lists of the world’s richest people and Cohen and longtime finance chief Allen Weisselberg will raise valuations to come up with an acceptable- acceptable number, Cohen wrote in his memoir “Disloyal.”

Lane wrote in his 2015 article that other real estate developers told the magazine that “hitting a high Forbes 400 estimate on a banker’s desk can help sometimes get bigger loans and better rates. “

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