Bloomberg: “President Donald Trump’s son Eric gave a judge a false explanation for why he backed out of a July deposition in a civil probe of the family business, New York’s top law enforcement officer said in a court filing. The state has been seeking sworn testimony from Eric Trump for months as part of a probe of asset valuations at the Trump Organization, where he’s an executive vice president. After New York took legal action in August to enforce a slate of subpoenas, Trump’s lawyer said his client had simply adjourned the deposition to get ‘certain assurances first.'”
“‘This assertion is false,’ New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a court filing Tuesday night in Manhattan. Trump gave his “categorical refusal to appear” through a July 27 letter from his lawyer, she said. James said Trump’s explanation about his failure to appear is also contradicted by his own public statements after she took legal action to enforce the subpoenas, which Trump and the family business argue seek privileged information. She cited a Fox News Radio interview in which Trump said, “Why would you possibly comply” with such demands. The Trump Organization’s chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, has already been deposed, though his questioning in July was allegedly cut short when he was asked whether he’d testified before a federal grand jury. When Eric Trump backed out of his deposition, his lawyers implied it was because Weisselberg’s questioning went beyond the scope of a civil probe, James has said.”