Trump returns to New York for deposition in business fraud lawsuit

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“$250M Lawsuit: Ex-President Trump to Face Questioning over Alleged Asset Inflation for Favorable Loans and Tax Benefits”

Former US President Donald Trump returned to New York on Thursday to give a deposition in a civil case accusing him of business fraud, as his legal issues continued to mount. He arrived in New York a little over a week after pleading not guilty to dozens of felony charges related to hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels and others during the 2016 presidential election.

Trump is staying at his Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue near Central Park and is preparing to answer questions behind closed doors in a $250m civil fraud lawsuit brought against him by the state’s attorney general, Letitia James. The lawsuit alleges that Trump and others manipulated property values and his net worth to obtain favorable loans and tax benefits.

The trial in the case is scheduled to begin on October 2. Thursday’s deposition could be used to discredit any testimony Trump may give at trial, or be offered as testimony if he is unavailable to appear.

In another potential blow to Trump, an appeals court in Washington DC refused to consider whether Trump can be shielded from the first of two defamation lawsuits by E Jean Carroll, who has accused him of raping her nearly 30 years ago. The court said it did not have sufficient information to decide whether he was acting as president when he accused Carroll of lying about the alleged incident.

Trump also faces federal investigations stemming from 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 probe in Georgia into whether he unlawfully sought to reverse the 2020 election results there.

On Wednesday, the New York Times reported that investigators from the US Department of Justice are looking into whether Trump took a map with him upon leaving office which contained “sensitive intelligence information”.

Meanwhile, in a court filing last month, Trump tried to block Georgia’s investigation into his alleged attempts to influence the 2020 election by seeking to bar the use of a report from a grand jury on the case. Trump’s attorneys have lambasted the investigation as “confusing, flawed, and, at times, blatantly unconstitutional”.

As Trump’s legal entanglements grow, the former president filed a $500m lawsuit against his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen on Wednesday, a key witness in Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s case involving hush money payments that Trump allegedly made to Stormy Daniels over an apparent extramarital affair.