A glance inside Donald Trump’s deposition: Defiance, deflection and the ‘hottest brand in the world’

NEW YORK — In newly public testimony, Donald Trump boasts about constructing a multibillion-dollar model and saving “millions of lives” as president.

He spars with the New York legal professional normal suing him for fraud, telling Letitia James “the whole case is crazy” and accusing her workers of attempting to journey him up like TV lawyer Perry Mason.

Trump gave seven hours of sworn testimony in April as a part of James’ lawsuit, which accused the Republican and his firm of defrauded banks, insurers and others with annual monetary statements that inflated the worth of property and boosted his web value by greater than $2 billion in some years.

Trump’s attorneys posted a transcript of his deposition in a flurry of court docket filings Wednesday, forward of a potential October trial.

Here are the highlights:

Trump decried James’ lawsuit as a “terrible thing,” telling her and her workers “you don’t have a case.”

He insisted the banks she alleges had been snookered with lofty valuations suffered no hurt, received paid in his offers and “to this day have no complaints.”

“Do you know the banks made a lot of money?” Trump requested. “Do you know I don’t believe I ever got even a default notice and, even during COVID, the banks were all paid. And yet you’re suing on behalf of banks, I guess. It’s crazy. The whole case is crazy.”

Banks “want to do business with me because I’m rich,” Trump advised James. “But, you know what, they’re petrified to do business because of you.”

Trump complained New York authorities “spend all their time investigating me, instead of stopping violent crime in the streets.”

He stated they’d put his not too long ago jailed ex-finance chief Allen Weisselberg “through hell and back” for dodging taxes on company-paid perks.

“Now I have to come and justify myself to you,” Trump groused.

Trump stated he by no means felt his monetary statements “would be taken very seriously,” and that individuals who did enterprise with him got ample warning to not belief them.

Trump described the statements as “a fairly good compilation of properties” somewhat than a real illustration of their worth. Some numbers, he famous, had been “guesstimates.”

Trump claimed the statements had been primarily for his use, although he conceded monetary establishments generally requested for them.

Even then, he insisted it didn’t matter legally in the event that they had been correct or not, as a result of they got here with a disclaimer.

“I have a clause in there that says, ‘Don’t believe the statement. Go out and do your own work,” Trump testified. “You’re supposed to pay no credence to what we say whatsoever.”

Trump estimated that his “brand” alone is value “maybe $10 billion.”

He known as it “the most valuable asset I have” and attributed his political success to the ubiquity of his title and persona.

“I became president because of the brand, OK,” Trump stated. “I became president. I think it’s the hottest brand in the world.”

After Trump was elected, he put the Trump Organization right into a belief overseen by his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and longtime finance chief, Allen Weisselberg.

Trump claimed he did so not as a result of it was required however as a result of he needed to be a “legitimate president” and keep away from look of a battle of curiosity.

Plus, Trump stated, he was busy fixing the world’s issues – like stopping North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un from launching a nuclear assault.

“I considered this the most important job in the world, saving millions of lives,” Trump testified. “I think you would have nuclear holocaust if I didn’t deal with North Korea. I think you would have a nuclear war, if I weren’t elected. And I think you might have a nuclear war now, if you want to know the truth.”

Trump’s typically garrulous testimony was a 180-degree flip from the strategy he took when James summoned him for questioning in August 2022 – earlier than her lawsuit or any of the 4 legal circumstances in opposition to him had been filed.

At that first deposition, Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege in opposition to self-incrimination and refusing to reply questions greater than 400 instances. Trump stated he did so as a result of he was sure politically motivated prosecutors would use his solutions as a foundation for legal prices.

By April, Trump modified his thoughts and responded to even easy questions at such size that his interrogator, James’ deputy Kevin Wallace, urged he was attempting to expire the clock.

“Chris, we’re going to be here until midnight if your client answers every question with an eight-minute speech,” he stated to one in all Trump’s attorneys, Christopher Kise.

Trump, although, appeared conscious there was a danger in occurring and on.

In the center of one in all his protracted solutions, expounding on the greatness of one in all his golf programs, Trump stated: “You are going to let me go on, hoping that I make a mistake. And that’s OK. That’s the way it is. Perry Mason. Perry Mason.”

Trump testified on the legal professional normal’s Manhattan workplace, throughout the road from 40 Wall Street – a skyscraper labeled “The Trump Building” in large, gold letters.

Asked how the constructing was doing, financially, Trump answered: “Good. It’s right here. Would you like to see it?”

“I don’t think we’re allowed to open the windows,” Wallace stated.

“Open the curtain,” Trump urged.

“No,” Wallace stated.

“Open the curtain, go ahead,” Trump stated. “It’s right here. I just looked out the window.”

“Can’t open it?” Trump lawyer Clifford Robert requested, after a beat.

“I wouldn’t,” Wallace stated.

Trump confirmed off his knack for superlatives, uttering the phrases “beautiful” and “incredible” 15 instances every and “phenomenal” six instances as he described his properties.

Trump known as his Turnberry, Scotland, golf course “one of the most iconic places in the world,” and the renovated villas at his Doral golf resort close to Miami “the most beautiful rooms you’ve ever seen.”

Trump described his 213-acre Seven Springs property north of New York City as “the greatest house in New York State.”

His golf programs in Aberdeen, Scotland? “Really incredible.” Jupiter, Florida? “An incredible facility.” Just exterior Los Angeles? “An incredible property… an unbelievable property… a phenomenal property that fronts on the ocean.”

“I don’t want to sell any of them,” Trump testified. “But if I ever sold them – if I ever put some of these things up for sale – I would get numbers that were staggering.”

He stated he may get $1.5 billion for his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida and perhaps $2.5 billion for Doral.

Trump urged he may get “a fortune” from the Saudi Arabia-backed LIV golf league for the Turnberry course, a former British Open web site.

“There would be people that would do anything to own Doral. There are people that would do anything to own Turnberry or Mar-a-Lago or… Trump Tower or 40 Wall Street.”

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Associated Press reporters Jennifer Peltz and David B. Caruso contributed to this report.

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