Trump returns to New York to give deposition in business fraud lawsuit | US news

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Former US president Donald Trump returned to New York on Thursday to give a deposition in a state civil case accusing him of business fraud, as his legal troubles continue to mount.

Trump arrived in New York more than a week after appearing in a New York criminal court on another matter, pleading not guilty to dozens of felony charges related to hush payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels and others in the 2016 presidential election.

He remained at his Trump Tower skyscraper on Fifth Avenue near Central Park on Wednesday night and on Thursday prepared to answer questions behind closed doors in a $250m civil fraud lawsuit filed against him by the states attorney general. , Letitia James.

Trump said as much in a series of overnight social media posts that also railed against the lawsuit.

I can finally show what a great, profitable, valuable company I have built, Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform on Thursday, after attacking the attorney general and what he called his prosecution. .

James’ lawsuit against Trump accuses him and others of a decades-long scheme to manipulate property values ​​and his own net worth to get favorable loans and tax benefits.

The lawsuit alleges that Trump misled banks and others about the value of his properties, including allegedly fraudulently inflating the value of 23 properties including his Florida Mar-a-Lago resort, Trump Tower and what used to be the Trump International Hotel, in Washington DC.

The complaint shows that Donald Trump falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to unjustly enrich himself and to cheat the system, thereby defrauding us all. He did it with the help of other defendants, James said last year.

The trial in the case is scheduled to begin on 2 October. Thursday’s deposition could be used to try to discredit any testimony Trump might give at trial, or be offered as testimony if he is unavailable to appear.

As Trump arrived in New York to address his legal problems in the state, an appeals court in Washington DC on Thursday declined to rule on another set of lawsuits involving Trump and the 79-year-old magazine writer E Jean Carroll, who accused him of raping her nearly 30 years ago.

In another potential blow to the former Republican president, the appeals court declined to consider whether Trump could be shielded from the first of Carroll’s two defamation lawsuits, saying it did not have enough information to decide whether he was acting president when he accused Carroll of lying about the alleged incident.

According to Carroll, Trump raped her in the mid-1990s at the luxury New York department store Bergdorf Goodman. Trump has denied and violently pushed back against the allegations, calling Carroll a piece of crap and his allegations a hoax and a lie, as well as a complete con job.

At one point, Trump also said: Shes not my type.

A Washington DC appeals court sent the case back to the second US circuit court of appeals in Manhattan, which in September questioned whether under local law Trump made his comments in his role as president, or in his personal capacity, as Carroll argued.

The Washington court said the second circuit court or a federal district judge in Manhattan should assess Trump’s role.

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A second denial trial is scheduled for April 25 in Manhattan federal court, where Trump may testify.

Trump also faces federal investigations stemming from his handling of government documents after leaving the White House and alleged attempts to reverse his 2020 election loss as well as a state-level investigation into Georgia if it is illegal that he seeks to overturn the results of the 2020 election there.

On Wednesday, the New York Times reported that investigators from the US Department of Justice are looking into whether Trump left office with a map containing sensitive intelligence information.

According to individuals familiar with the matter, investigators asked whether Trump showed the map to others while on the plane as well as to a journalist who was writing a book, the outlet reported.

Meanwhile, in a court appearance last month, Trump tried to block a Georgia investigation into his alleged attempts to influence the 2020 election by seeking to block the use of a report from a grand jury on case. Trump’s lawyers have criticized the investigation as confusing, flawed, and, at times, outright unconstitutional.

The filing also seeks to bar Fulton county’s Democratic district attorney, Fani Willis, from participating in the case.

As Trump’s legal entanglements grow, the former president filed a $500m lawsuit against his former lawyer Michael Cohen on Wednesday, a key witness in Manhattan district attorney Alvin Braggs’ case involving the hush payments Trump allegedly made to adult film star Stormy Daniels during an apparent extramarital affair.

The Trumps’ lawsuit alleges that Cohen breached his attorney-client relationship and unjustly enriched himself.

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