Judge orders Eric Trump to testify in New York probe before election
23 September 2020
A judge on Wednesday ordered Eric Trump to comply with a subpoena to testify in a New York probe into his family business before the presidential election.
The state of play: New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) last month said her office had filed a lawsuit to compel the Trump Organization to comply with subpoenas related to an investigation into whether President Trump and his company improperly inflated the value of its assets on financial statements.
- The investigation was launched after the president's former personal attorney Michael Cohen testified to Congress that Trump inflated and deflated his net worth at various times in order to obtain tax benefits and more favorable terms for loans.
Context: Lawyers for Eric Trump said the president's middle son had agreed to testify, but only after the election. They said his “extreme travel schedule” warranted the delay.
- The New York attorney general's office argued that “Mr. Trump shouldn’t be able to profit from his own dilatory conduct here.”
- A state judge on Wednesday said that he found Eric Trump's argument "unpersuasive."
What's next: Eric Trump must testify before Oct. 7, per the judge's order, which added that probe and court are “bound by the timelines of the national election.”
The big picture: The attorney general's investigation is one of several probes that Trump and his company are facing as he seeks re-election in November, including a criminal inquiry led by the Manhattan district attorney.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.