Donald Trump's sons in court in a case threatening the family's real estate empire

   Three of Donald Trump's sons appeared before a court in New York starting on Wednesday in a "fraud" case that threatens the family's real estate empire, with the former president himself facing several other legal battles later on.

According to the expected program, this legal series is set to begin on Wednesday with the testimony of Donald Trump Jr. (45 years old), followed by his brother Eric (39 years old) on Thursday.

They jointly serve as acting CEOs of the "Trump Organization," which encompasses several companies managing skyscrapers, residences, offices, luxury hotels, and golf courses worldwide. They are accused, like their father before them, by New York Attorney General Letitia James of inflating the value of these group assets by billions of dollars to obtain bank loans at the best rates and privileged security terms.

The proceedings of this trial are expected to continue, unless there are any emergencies, with the questioning of Donald Trump (77 years old) on Monday, exactly one year before the scheduled date of the presidential elections on November 5, 2024, in which Trump hopes to return to the White House.

Two days later, his daughter Ivanka will be heard, although she is not involved in the fraud charges as she left the group in 2017 to work as an adviser to her father the president.

Fines

Donald (Jr.) and Eric had taken over the reins of the Trump Organization after their father assumed the presidency. They had been involved in the family's projects and businesses for a long time.

Politically, the two brothers are strong and loyal allies to their father, expressing their support for him daily in the media and on social networks.

It is expected that they will not deviate from the defense plan adopted since the start of this trial a month ago. This strategy, as confirmed by the defense lawyers, relies on estimating the value of the assets constituting the family empire, such as the famous Trump Tower in New York, based on their own printed accounts, which were honest. And that the banks did not lose anything in the loans they granted to the Trump Organization.

For his part, the former president denounces the trial as "unfair," led by a prosecutor he describes as "extremely corrupt." Judge Arthur Ingoron, who presides over the case, is accused of being a "rogue" and working for his Democratic opponents to prevent him from returning to the White House.

Trump, who regularly attends the sessions of this trial, holds what resembles mini press conferences in the corridors of the court, presenting himself as a victim of a judicial plot, just as he does in four other criminal trials he is involved in, most notably the accusation of attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election won by his Democratic rival Joe Biden.

Despite these trials, current opinion polls give Trump an advantage in the Republican primaries. Given his approach, the judges in several cases have prevented him from personally attacking members of the judiciary or witnesses and have avoided subjecting them to pressure. Judge Ingoron ruled in the New York trial that he must pay two fines of $5,000 and $10,000, paid at once after he attacked the court stenographer.

Trump's attendance at the sessions highlights his importance to this trial, even though he does not face any prison penalties. However, it could result in him losing control of part of his real estate wealth, in addition to a $250 million fine and a ban on managing his companies in New York.

Even before the opening of this trial on October 2nd, Judge Ingoron believed that the prosecution provided "conclusive evidence that the defendants inflated the value of assets between 2014 and 2021" from "812 million to 2.2 billion dollars." As a result of these "repeated frauds," he ordered the liquidation of these companies, a judicial decision that is akin to a bombshell, but its implementation has stalled pending appeal.

The court is also examining other violations of financial laws, as well as the amount of the fine demanded by the prosecution.

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