April 13 (UPI) — Former President Donald Trump traveled to New York Thursday where he will be deposed under oath for a second time in New York Attorney General Letitia James‘ $250 million civil suit accusing him of “staggering” business fraud.
Trump announced his arrival shortly after midnight in a post on his social media platform Truth Social as he called the civil suit “unjust and ridiculous.”
“I built a GREAT and prosperous company, employed thousands of people, built magnificent structures all over the world, but particularly in New York and now have to prove it to this LOWLIFE who campaigned on an ‘I will get Trump platform, even before knowing anything about me!” Trump wrote.
During his first deposition in August, Trump used the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incriminating statements as he refused to answer James’ questions.
In September, James filed the civil suit against Trump, his adult children Donald Trump, Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump and the Trump Organization alleging an illegal fraud scheme that overvalued Trump assets by billions of dollars, which included “200 false and misleading valuations” over a 10-year period.
“These acts of fraud and misrepresentation grossly inflated Mr. Trump’s personal net worth as reported in the statements by billions of dollars and conveyed false and misleading impressions to financial counterparties about how the statements were prepared,” the suit alleges.
In addition to a $250 million civil penalty, the New York Attorney General’s lawsuit would ban Trump and his adult children from doing business in New York for five years.
Trump’s adult children were deposed last year in this case.
In addition to facing 34 felony charges filed by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Trump faces several other criminal probes and civil actions.
Other cases in various stages filed against Trump include the classified government documents case that Special Counsel Jack Smith is investigating, and the Justice Department investigation into the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection aimed at overturning the national 2020 presidential election results.
Atlanta prosecutor Fani Willis is also overseeing a criminal investigation into alleged Trump efforts to illegally overturn the 2020 Georgia presidential election results.
And Trump faces a civil lawsuit from former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll, who alleges that Trump sexually assaulted her in the 1990’s. When Trump denied the allegation, Carroll sued him for defamation.
Trump was deposed in that lawsuit in October 2022.
In January 2023 the New York Supreme Court ordered the Trump organization to pay a $1.6 million criminal penalty afte the Trump Organization was convicted of tax fraud for using off-the-books perks for top Trump executives.
