By Dan Berman
From CNN's Lauren del Valle, Kara Scannell and Jeremy Herb
So far in his testimony, Donald Trump Jr. has at times spoken quickly as he answered questions from Trump attorney Cliff Robert.
At one point, Judge Arthur Engoron had him pause for the court reporter to catch up, telling Trump Jr., “Welcome back.”
"I'd say it's nice to be here, but I have a feeling the attorney general would sue me for perjury," Trump Jr. joked.
From CNN's Lauren del Valle, Kara Scannell, and Jeremy Herb
Donald Trump Jr. began his testimony Monday by explaining his role at the Trump Organization both before and after his father became president in 2017.
Trump Jr., the first witness for the defense in his father’s civil case, said he and his brother became “asset managers” because they decided not to do new deals while his father was president.
“In retrospect, that was probably a mistake,” Trump Jr. said,
Everyone claimed “we were still doing that, so it didn't really matter and we got no credit for it.”
For the years before Trump was elected president, Trump Jr. and his siblings Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump were on the ground running their own projects with their own autonomous roles, Trump Jr. said.
Walking through the work he and his siblings did before Trump became president, he said "we worked collectively but each one of us had our collective buckets."
In 2017, Eric Trump took over more of the day to day and Trump Jr. said he worked on "bigger picture" deals, while Ivanka Trump left for Washington DC with their father. Their father was not involved, and they didn’t bring business to him, Trump Jr. said. "It would have been very apparent, very quickly if he was involved," he added.
From CNN's Lauren del Valle
Donald Trump Jr. has taken the stand as the first defense witness in the New York civil fraud trial against him, his father Donald Trump and their company as Trump's attorneys begin presenting their side.
Trump's attorney Cliff Robert is questioning Trump Jr., whose demeanor so far is lighthearted as he discusses his early work at the Trump Organization.
From CNN's Lauren del Valle and Kara Scannell
The New York attorney general’s office rested its civil fraud case last week against former President Donald Trump, his adult sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric, and their company.
Trump Jr. will be the first witness for the defense on Monday, and Trump attorneys have said they are likely to call back Eric Trump and the former president to the stand.
The trial is entering its seventh week, with testimony from a total of 25 witnesses — 24 of which were in person.
Ivanka Trump was the last witness called before the attorney general’s office rested its case. She followed testimony from her father and her brothers, Donald Jr. and Eric.
Judge Arthur Engoron had already ruled before the start of the trial that Donald Trump and his co-defendants committed “persistent and repeated” fraud.
The judge is now considering how much the Trumps will have to pay in damages for the profits they’ve allegedly garnered through fraudulent business practices, including inflating Trump’s worth on financial statements.
The attorney general is seeking to prove six additional claims:
The attorney general is also seeking to ban the Trumps from doing business in New York.
The trial saw a slew of fireworks, including the judge imposing two fines on Donald Trump totaling $15,000 for violating his gag order forbidding anyone from commenting about his staff. Trump had repeatedly criticized Engoron’s law clerk.
Before testifying, Donald Trump had attended court for several days, where he attacked New York Attorney General Letitia James, the judge, and the case against him.
He did the same when he took the stand earlier this week with lengthy speeches during his testimony that sparked multiple admonishments from the judge.
Trump’s attorneys have indicated they would finish their defense by mid-December.
From CNN's Linh Tran
Donald Trump Jr. has arrived at court in New York where he is expected to be the first defense witness to be called as Trump’s attorneys begin presenting their side in their civil fraud trial Monday.
He waived to the cameras as he walked up the stairs into the courthouse.
Trump Jr. is a co-defendant, along with his father, his brother Eric, and their organization in the civil fraud trial.
The New York Attorney General’s office rested its case last week.
From CNN's Jeremy Herb, Lauren del Valle and Kara Scannell
Donald Trump Jr. will be back on the stand Monday as the defense's first witness in the New York civil fraud trial.
Trump Jr. and his brother Eric Trump are co-defendants, along with their father, the Trump Organization, and several company executives.
The $250 million lawsuit accuses Trump Jr. and Eric Trump of knowingly participating in a scheme to inflate their father’s net worth to obtain financial benefits like better loans and insurance policy terms.
In a deposition taken last year, Trump Jr. distanced himself from the financial statementsJudge Arthur Engoron had already ruled to be fraudulent in a summary judgment before the trial began.
“I had no real involvement in the preparation of the Statement of Financial Condition and don’t really remember ever working on it with anyone,” Trump Jr. said.
Donald Trump Jr. said he relied on accountants: While answering questions from the prosecution earlier this month, Trump Jr. repeatedly said he relied on his accountants and was not involved with the preparations of financial statements for his father, even though he signed them as a trustee of his father’s revocable trust.
He testified that he didn’t draft the financial statements, and when he certified them as a trustee, he relied on the Trump Organization accounting and legal teams that he said assured him they were accurate to sign.
The attorney general’s office and Trump’s lawyers got into a lengthy back-and-forth over attorney-client privilege after questions emerged on what steps the Trump Organization had taken once the attorney general’s investigation into the company began in 2019.
Some internal policies and methodologies “have been bolstered” since the investigation began, Trump Jr. said. One of those changes, he said, was hiring a chief financial officer who is a certified public accountant.
From CNN's Kara Scannell
When Donald Trump launches his defense Monday against allegations that he, his adult sons and his business defrauded lenders and insurers to enrich themselves, the first witness his lawyers will call is the former president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., as they aim to convince the judge that they didn’t intentionally do anything wrong.
Trump Jr., a defendant in the case, testified earlier this month when he was called by New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office, which filed the fraud lawsuit.
Under oath, he denied any role in the preparation of his father’s financial statements and said he consulted with lawyers and accountants before he signed off on the statements as trustee of his father’s trust and certified their accuracy annually to banks that loaned them millions of dollars. The Trumps have also argued that the banks were happy to have their business.
Trump’s lawyers, launching their case in the seventh week of the trial, are recalling some of the state’s witnesses as they present their defense to the allegations.
In addition to Trump Jr., Trump attorneys have said they are likely to call back Eric Trump and the former president, both of whom also previously testified.
Trump’s argument: The thrust of the Trump defense is that the financial statements were not misleading and that different people can come up with different values for the same property.
The defense has argued that there was no intent to defraud banks or insurers, in part because the Trump family relied on accountants, and that any differences in values on the properties were not meaningful.
Trump’s team has argued the financial statements were not important to the decisions by lenders to loan money or by insurers to underwrite policies. Moreover, they argue no banks lost any money and none have claimed they were defrauded or misled by the financial statements.
When Trump Jr. takes the stand, he will be questioned by attorneys representing the Trump family and business. That will allow greater leeway in the kinds of questions and answers he can give than when he was quizzed by lawyers for the state. It will also open him up to cross-examination by the state’s lawyers.
Read more about Trump's civil fraud trial here.
