Former President Donald Trump arrived in New York on Thursday to be questioned in a $250 million civil fraud lawsuit filed by the state’s attorney general against him, he said in a series of overnight social media posts.
The deposition, however, will take place behind closed doors and is unlikely to garner the same level of attention as his surrender on separate criminal charges last week.
Trump, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, is expected to visit the offices of New York Attorney General Letitia James in lower Manhattan, where he will be questioned about his business practices. According to the lawsuit, he and others engaged in a decade-long scheme to manipulate property values and his net worth in order to obtain favorable loans and tax breaks.
The trial in the case is set to begin on October 2. The deposition on Thursday could be used to discredit any testimony Trump gives at trial, or it could be used as testimony if he is unable to appear.
This is not Trump’s first run-in with the New York attorney general. During questioning in August, before the case was filed, Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 400 times. According to legal experts, the attorney general is also entitled to a deposition following the filing of the lawsuit.
“I will finally be able to show what a great, profitable, and valuable company I built,” Trump said in an early Thursday post on the Truth Social platform, after criticizing the attorney general and her “persecution,” as well as the judge in the case and the district attorney who brought the separate criminal charges. After the arraignment, Trump, whose surrender on April 4 drew worldwide media attention and a large police presence, returned to his home in Florida. The charges stem from allegations that he orchestrated a hush-money payment to a porn star prior to the 2016 election in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to the allegations. He stated that the sexual encounter did not occur. It was the first time a US president had been charged with a crime while in office or afterward.
Trump is also facing federal investigations into his handling of government documents after leaving the White House and alleged attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat, as well as a state-level investigation in Georgia into whether he unlawfully sought to reverse the results of the 2020 election there.
In addition, a trial in federal court in New York is scheduled for April 25 to determine whether Trump defamed former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll by denying he raped her. Trump is attempting to postpone the trial.
