"I leave it to my accountants": Trump Jr. keeps things vague in fraud trial testimony

As the first of Trump's children to testify, Trump Jr. passed the buck to Weisselberg and others in his answers

By Kelly McClure

Nights & Weekends Editor

Published November 1, 2023 5:28PM (EDT)

Donald Trump Jr. leaves for a break in former President Donald Trump's civil fraud trial on November 01, 2023 in New York City. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)
Donald Trump Jr. leaves for a break in former President Donald Trump's civil fraud trial on November 01, 2023 in New York City. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)

Donald Trump Jr. — the first of Trump's children to testify at the Trump fraud trial in New York — gave a breezy performance in the courtroom on Wednesday, answering questions pertaining to his knowledge of the Trump Organization's financial dealing's in a manner that could be perceived as vague.

When asked by The New York attorney general’s office if he was familiar with accounting standards, such as the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), he responded that "his knowledge of GAAP was limited to what he learned in 'Accounting 101' during college in the 1990s, according to CNN.

“I know nothing about GAAP — I leave it to my accountants,” Trump Jr. said. "I rely on their opinions and their assessments to make those decisions." 

Along those same lines, when asked to detail his involvement in "producing so-called statements of financial condition, documents with allegedly inflated valuations that the state says were central to the fraud scheme," as written out in CBS News' coverage of his testimony, Trump Jr. said, "I know that I signed off on a document that Mazars prepared with intimate knowledge, and as a trustee, I know that I have to trust people with intimate knowledge of these things . . I trusted Allen Weisselberg, my CFO, and Mazars, a top five accounting company . . . These people had an incredible intimate knowledge and I relied on them." 

 

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