Right now, Donald Trump's
son, Eric, is on the stand
in the civil fraud trial in New York.
He's testifying
after his brother Don
Jr finished his testimony.
Both men are executive vice
president of the Trump Organization
and co-defendants in this trial.
And earlier
today,
Don Jr repeatedly
said he relied on his accountants
and was not involved
with the preparations
of financial statements for his father.
Take a look at him live in court today.
Before even having a day in court.
I'm apparently guilty
of fraud for relying
on my accountants to do wait for it
accounting.
I mean, think about that.
What does that do
for literally any other business?
And joining us now is Nick Ackerman.
He's a former assistant U.S.
attorney for the Southern District
of New York.
Nick, thanks so much
for being here with us.
We just heard from Donald Trump Jr.
He's repeatedly said
that he relied on his accountants
and was not involved
with the preparations
of these financial statements
for his father.
How do you expect the judge to read that,
given that
he also signed a statement
as a trustee of the president's
revocable trust
I think the way
the judge is going to read
this is that Don Jr is a liar.
The fact of the matter
is he not only signed off
on the financial statements
He basically said that he had evaluated
the adequacy of the services performed
by the accountants and lawyers
He also sent
that same financial statement on
to Deutsche Bank.
And he said there,
and I quote, presents
fairly in all material respects
the financial condition of the guarantor
at the period presented.
Now, the
AG's office brought on evidence today
that at the time,
Don Junior
had been contacted by Forbes magazine
and told that there was a false statement
on the financials
respect
being the size of his father's apartment,
where the financials claimed
it was 10,000
square feet or 30,000 square feet
when it was somewhat over
10,000 square feet
and claimed
an outrageous amount of money
for the value of the apartment.
And Don
Jr never fixed that financial statement.
Now this has to be
looked at in the context
of where corporate compliance has gone
since the Enron scandal in 2001
companies are now required, just as
Don Junior
did here, to certify
the financials, certify to banks
that in fact he's actually kick the tires
on what the accountants did.
He had the obligation
to sit down with the accountants,
go over those numbers and explain to him
where they got those numbers
for the fact
that Don
Junior claimed yesterday
that he has no idea
what generally accepted
accounting principles
are, just doesn't cut it.
He had the obligation
to go through those financials.
Now, even though it's
not a public company,
he has still made
those same representations
that public companies
have been required to make by their CEOs
or CFO post Enron.
He failed that miserably.
And to simply claim
that it's the fault of the accountants
are the fault of the lawyers
is complete nonsense,
particularly in light of the fact
that accountants have already testified
that the lawyer, Michael
Cohen, has already testified
that these numbers
were all phony baloney.
So this doesn't really get them very far
and I think the judge is going to hold
all of this against him.
And I'm assuming that
Eric Trump, who has just gotten up on
the stand,
is taking somewhat
the same tact,
if not asserting his Fifth Amendment
against self-incrimination on the ground,
that a truthful answer
would tend to incriminate him. Right.
And that's
what I wanted to ask you about,
because we are going to hear from Eric.
And it sounds like you do
think he's
just going to rely
on the same explanation,
which is it was the accountants
That's right.
It's the accountants did it.
I mean, the fact of the matter is,
the other accountant who certified these
financials was Allen Weisselberg.
And what happened with Allen Weisselberg?
He went to prison.
He was fined
$1,000,000,
including fines, penalties, etc..
And what did the Trump Organization do?
They gave him as a severance,
$1,000,000, matching up exactly what
the fines and penalties
were on the criminal case.
If that's not a case of
hush money payment, I don't know what is.
And I'm
sure the judge
is going to take that into account
in his final decision.
All right,
Nick Ackerman,
thanks so much for your analysis here.
Always nice to see you. We appreciate it.