Donald Trump is scheduled to appear before lawyers in the Office of the New York Attorney General Letitia James Wednesday morning to give sworn testimony in her probe of his real estate pricing practices.
Trump’s long-awaited deposition was originally scheduled for January 7, according to the subpoena he received, Insider reports, but he has successfully managed to push it back more than seven months. Similarly two of his adult children had their depositions pushed back, and then pushed even further after the recent death of their mother, Ivana Trump.
“Trump allegedly misstated property values to win hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks and bank loans,” Insider reports. The former president “is scheduled to be grilled in person in Manhattan on what James has alleged is a decade-long pattern of financial misstatements on documents used by the Trump Organization to win hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks and bank loans.”
Fox News adds: “It’s unclear at this time if the former president will be willing to answer all the questions that the lawyers pose him or if he could be asserting his Fifth Amendment right.”
Trump “has also called the investigation by the New York attorney general, Letitia James, a politically motivated witch hunt,” The New York Times reports.
“He repeated his criticism on his Truth Social account. ‘In New York City tonight. Seeing racist N.Y.S. Attorney General tomorrow, for a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in U.S. history!’ he wrote. ‘My great company, and myself, are being attacked from all sides. Banana Republic!'”
Wednesday’s deposition marks the third harrowing day for the Republican politician, conspiracy theorist, white nationalist, and, some say, “con man” and “cult-like” figure.
Monday morning FBI agents executed a valid legal search warrant, signed by a federal judge, and confiscated ten cartons of documents which Trump’s press secretary acknowledged included confidential “paper.”
Tuesday a federal appeals court upheld a ruling made by a Trump-appointed lower court judge that allows the powerful House Ways and Means Committee to be granted access to his tax returns.