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- Donald Trump, Jr., completed two days of testimony in the Trump civil fraud trial in New York.
- Before he yielded the stand to Eric Trump, a state attorney made a significant revelation.
- NY now wants some of the $60M sale of Trump's Bronx golf course, above the $250M originally sought.
New York officials want even higher penalties from Donald Trump than the $250 million they've already said they're seeking, it was revealed during testimony Thursday by Donald Trump, Jr.
The former president's namesake son was just wrapping his final hour of his testimony in the New York civil fraud trial when the financial bombshell fell: Donald Trump now faces potentially millions more in penalties.
The state attorney general's office now wants a piece, a lawyer for the office said in court, of $60 million Donald Trump received earlier this year. The money was what gaming giant Bally's paid Trump to take over the former president's lease for a public golf course in the Bronx.
Just how much of the $60 million New York will ask for was not detailed in the Manhattan courtroom, where the trial is ending its fifth week.
The new cash-grab was revealed in what started as jovial testimony.
"This is a big one," Colleen Faherty, a lawyer for state AG Letitia James, began, calling back to a joke Donald Trump, Jr., had made minutes earlier.
"That's a big one," he had joked of a 2019 letter, when he was told to turn to his signature on page 100.
This next document was even bigger, Faherty warned, smiling. It was the nearly 400-page agreement of sale for the golf course lease. It was signed by Donald Trump Jr., president of Trump Ferry Point LLC, which held the lease.
"Mr. Trump, I'm not going to ask you to go over the whole thing," Faherty joked of the bulky sale agreement.
"I appreciate that," Donald Trump, Jr., joked back.
Instructed to turn to page 34 — and asked, "Tell me if you recognize that signature there" — he answered, "That's my signature."
"This transaction did in fact close?" Faherty asked. Donald Trump, Jr., said it had.
At this point, a defense lawyer objected, questioning the relevance of the lease sale to the case.
It's not mentioned in James' $250 million lawsuit, objected the lawyer, Christopher Kise. Trump's "world class golf course" in the Bronx, as he called it, is not involved in any alleged fraud, the lawyer also complained.
That's when Faherty dropped the word "disgorgement" — the legal term for the forced repayment, by a court, of ill-gotten gains — thereby letting the cat out of the bag.
The golf lease sale, and the sale proceeds, are relevant, Faherty argued, because that money is "subject to disgorgement," she said.
The judge in the non-jury trial, New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, allowed the lease sale document to be entered into evidence, and its pages were displayed on overhead screens in the courtroom.
"How much did you make in this transaction, Mr. Trump?" as president of the Trump Ferry Point LLC, Faherty asked.
There was another flurry of objections, cut short when Donald Trump, Jr. cheerfully mooted the dispute by cracking, "I didn't make any."
"The sale price was $60 million," he said. "But we also had other costs" from the years-long process of selling the lease, he added. "So I don't know the exact net number for profit."
The AG's office has said it will ask for a total of at least $250 million in total "disgorgement" from her lawsuit's defendants: Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., Eric Trump, and longtime Trump Organization executives Allen Weisselberg and Jeffrey McConney.
The figure includes many millions of dollars in loan interest discounts and property-sale profits, including from Trump's sale of the Old Post Office lease, which he'd owned in running the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC.
The full disgorgement amount would be determined by the judge sometime after trial testimony concludes in late December.