By Liz Ciocher
Arts & Entertainment Editor
Last week, the Trump family began their testimony in the Trump Organization’s civil trial with Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump’s testimony in New York.
The trial, following the company’s fraud allegations, began last month and asserts that the two sons, Donald Trump himself and other associates of the company falsely inflated company real estate assets in order to increase the company’s net worth.
Donald Jr. and Eric were the first to testify in the trial on Nov. 2, followed by Donald Trump’s testimony on Nov. 6 and Ivanka Trump’s on Nov. 8.
While the Trump’s behaved differently from one another, they were almost identical in all other ways, including what they had to say in the testimony and the way they were dressed.
According to the BBC, both Donald Jr. and Eric wore blue suits that were nearly identical and refuted their involvement in the company’s financial decisions, claiming their innocence. The claim included their heavy reliance on the company’s accountants to explain their uninvolvement.
During the hours of questioning, there were many controversial moments, including Eric raising his voice at the attorney general’s team and purposely providing the court with very vague answers, along with Donald Jr. telling a courtroom sketch artist, “make me look sexy.”
Donald Trump expressed his opinion of the circumstance of his sons’ testimonies publicly, saying, “so sad to see my sons being PERSECUTED in a political Witch Hunt by this out of control, publicity seeking, New York State Judge,” on his social media company, Truth Social.
In his own testimony, Trump also vouched for the company’s innocence, claiming he knew little about the financial statements being referenced to in the case.
Along with this statement, a thread of live postings from the courtroom on NBC, which showed his testimony, also included name calling directed at the attorney general Letitia James, raising his voice at the judge and an overall loss of his composure.
In Ivanka’s testimony on Wednesday, AP News reports that she made a much more neutral response to questions in comparison to her brothers’, stating, “those [Trump’s personal financial statements] were not things that I was privy to.”
She claimed to have only seen “a few documents and correspondence.”
The vague and undescriptive testimonies of Trump’s children did not provide the courtroom with much information, but is expanding the trial nonetheless. While the case’s legal representatives continue to formulate further action in the case, Trump came to some of his own conclusions.
“Based on this information, which is so ridiculous, he said that I was a Fraud, when in fact it is Letitia James and the Judge who are Fraudulent for setting such LOW VALUATIONS in order to undermine and discredit my Financial Statements, thereby making me look bad - Election Interference!” Trump said on Truth Social.
The trial does not include a jury, and therefore will reach a verdict by the Judge Arthur Engoron’s beliefs alone. If he decides in favor of the attorney general against Trump, there will be an issued $250 million dollars in penalties and a permanent ban on any business with the Trump Organization in the state of New York.
Regardless of the functionality of the testimonies from the Trump families, Trump is optimistic about the case resulting in his favor.
"I think it went very well," Trump said to NBC reporters. "I think you were there and you listened, you see what a scam this is."
There is currently no determined verdict on the trial as the case is still ongoing.
