Trump claims his sons are being persecuted

“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 a case that should have NEVER been brought,” ex-president Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social.

“Legal Scholars Scream Disgrace!”

The ex-president was wasting no time in firing up the classic divert, discredit and delay defence strategy that he’s deploying across his staggeringly broad legal exposure that includes four looming criminal trials weighing on his 2024 White House bid.

Trump’s latest blast against Judge Arthur Engoron, who has already found Trump, his two adult sons and their family empire – the Trump Organisation – liable for fraud, also served as a preemptive blow ahead of the ex-president’s own expected testimony in the civil trial in the courtroom on Monday.

The sometimes strange goings on at the court in New York are offering early insight into how the even more high-profile and criminal cases facing Trump could play out in an unprecedented election year when the campaign trail will run through the courts as well as key swing states.

Trump fights his cases outside the courtroom

Just as he tarnished the reputation of the US electoral system among millions of his supporters with false claims of election fraud, the ex-president is now seeking to trash the image of another pillar of American democracy: the courts.

And characteristically, he is accusing President Joe Biden, his Justice Department and various prosecutors of being guilty of the very transgression that he himself perpetrated as he portrays the cases against him as “Election Interference”.

Trump put his two adult sons in charge of his real estate firm when he became president, but despite their positions of authority, both insisted they had very little to do with dealing with their father’s financial statements, which were used in securing loans on the firm’s behalf.

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“That’s not the focus of my day. I focus on construction. I don’t focus on appraisals,” Eric Trump said at one point, after a long exchange in which Assistant New York Attorney General Andrew Amer tried to show his deep involvement in the affairs of a development at a Trump golf course in New York.

The case rests on claims that Trump, his sons and their firm inflated statements of the ex-president’s personal wealth to get financial benefits in loan and insurance policies worth tens of millions of dollars.

The case is a civil one and does not allege criminal behaviour but could result in heavy financial restitution and end the company’s capacity to do business in New York. It’s therefore critical to Trump’s own financial health, his legacy and the future prospects of his family.

Things grew heated when Amer apparently succeeded in undermining Eric Trump’s claims that he had little to do with his father’s financial statements. “I understand we had financials as a company,” Eric Trump said. But he added: “I was not personally aware of the statement of financial condition.”

Amer, however, showed him an email he was sent in 2013 from the firm’s former financial controller Jeff McConney who asked him to value a property that included a supporting data spreadsheet.

“So you did know about your father’s annual financial statement, as of August 20, 2013, didn’t you?” Amer asked. Eric Trump replied: “It appears that way, yes.”

In essence, both Trump sons are arguing that despite running the company, they knew nothing about its financial statements.

Outside the courtroom on Thursday, Donald Trump Jr also dipped into his father’s bag of political tricks by portraying himself as the innocent target of a witch-hunt.

“I think it went really well, if we were actually dealing with logic and reason the way business is conducted,” he said, adding that “unfortunately the AG has brought forth a case that is purely a political persecution.”