Eric Trump can’t seem to decide if Mar-a-Lago is a private club or his father’s residence—even under oath.
After a 30-minute courtroom battle royale on Friday between Donald Trump’s lawyers and Judge Arthur Engoron, who will be deciding the fate of the ex-president’s businesses in his $250 million civil fraud trial, Eric took the stand for a second day.
Following his claims on Thursday that rather than focus on the financials (“I pour concrete… I operate properties,” he insisted), the Trump son said he had only signed off on allegedly manipulated financial statements after receiving assurances from highly paid experts that everything was on the up-and-up.
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“I relied on one of the biggest accounting firms in the country, and a great legal team,” Eric testified.
In fact, he insisted, “I wouldn’t sign something that I knew was inaccurate.”
After running through a series of financial documents Eric had certified with his signature, prosecutors brought up a Nov. 2021 email about a “homestead exemption” for Mar a Lago, which Eric said he recalled “some details about.” (A homestead exemption in Florida decreases one’s tax burden and protects a property from creditors if Trump files for bankruptcy in the future.)
For Mar-a-Lago to become Trump’s primary residence, the ex-president would have to personally take ownership of the property from the corporate LLC he had established upon purchase, prosecutors noted.
Doing so would require a new appraisal, they said; it had been appraised previously at $359 per square foot. Eric said he didn’t get into details like this.
However, he said he understood that residential properties, on a square footage basis, are worth more than private clubs. Still, he insisted he had “no idea” whether or not the Trump Organization’s appraisal of Mar-a-Lago was dependent on that.
“Mar-a-Lago is a residence that could be sold to a private individual and we have the absolute zoning right to do so,” Eric testified. “It’s very clear that Mar-a-Lago is not a club, it’s a private residence.”
The prosecution then asked if Eric understood that in 2021 he certified to Deutsche Bank that Mar-a-Lago had been valued as a private residence. Yes, he replied.
“And were you aware that Mar-a-Lago was being assessed for tax purposes, as a private club?” the prosecution asked.
“It is used as a private club,” he said. “Mar-a-Lago is a private club, yes.”
Donald Trump bought Mar-a-Lago in 1985 for $10 million. Its most recent appraisal from Palm Beach County officials clocked in at $18 million, which Trump has hotly disputed, claiming, without providing evidence, that the property is in fact worth “50 or 100 times that.” If it really is worth that much, Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) wrote in a letter to the Palm Beach Property Appraiser last month, “will you be amending the property value in line with the Trump family’s belief that the property is worth well over a billion dollars?”
Friday’s proceedings wrapped up before noon. Trump himself is scheduled to take the stand on Monday.
