Donald Trump returning to New York for deposition in $250M civil lawsuit: Sources
Letitia James has accused Trump of overvaluing real estate assets.
Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to return to New York City Thursday to sit for a second deposition as part of New York Attorney General Letitia James' $250 million civil fraud lawsuit, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
Trump previously sat for an hourslong deposition in August, prior to James filing her lawsuit that accused Trump, his eldest children and his company of fraudulently inflating the value of the Trump real estate portfolio and his net worth.
The attorney general's office has the right to depose relevant parties after the filing of the lawsuit as part of the discovery process.
Trump is expected to sit for this new deposition Thursday at the attorney general's downtown office. The former president has been seeking to delay the start of the trial in the civil case, but the judge has said the October start is firm "come hell or high water."
Trump did not answer many questions in the first deposition other than affirming he understood the ground rules and the procedures.
When Kevin Wallace, the attorney general's senior counsel, asked what Trump did to prepare for the deposition, he answered: "very little."
When asked questions about his finances, Trump repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment and continued to do so for the next several hours.
The suit claims that Trump's Florida estate and golf resort, Mar-a-Lago, was valued as high as $739 million, but should have been valued at $75 million. Trump is also alleged to have overvalued assets such as his Trump Tower apartment; Trump Turnberry, his golf course in Scotland; and 40 Wall Street.
Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr., the president's eldest children, also previously sat for depositions in the case.
Trump had initially countersued James for filing the lawsuit against him. But Trump withdrew the lawsuit in January after U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks warned Trump's legal team that the lawsuit appeared to verge on frivolous.
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