The spotlight at Donald Trump's civil fraud trial turned Thursday to the former president's son Eric, with documents and testimony suggesting the scion envisioned a "lofty" value on a suburban New York golf course where the family business proposed building luxury townhouses, the AP reports. The trial stems from New York Attorney General Letitia James' claims that Trump, his company and executives, including Eric Trump, fraudulently inflated the value of the Westchester County golf club and other properties on financial statements given to lenders, insurers and others. Trump, the front-runner in the 2024 Republican presidential nomination race, denies the allegations and says the documents actually underestimated the value of his prime properties.
Eric Trump, an executive vice president at the Trump Organization, sought an appraisal of the Trump National Golf Club in Briarcliff Manor, New York, in 2013, according to documents and testimony Thursday. At the time, the Trumps were considering what's known as a conservation easement on the property, said David McArdle, an appraiser with the commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield. A conservation easement is essentially an agreement to forgo development in exchange for a tax break. McArdle said that he was asked to figure out what the property would be worth if the Trump Organization built 71 high-end townhomes there, and that he received substantial input from Eric Trump. "Of course Eric Trump has lofty ideas on value," assuming the townhouses would easily sell for $1,000 per square foot, McArdle wrote in an email to a fellow appraiser at the time.
"Eric loved this project. He thought it was very special. I didn't disagree with him," McArdle testified Thursday. He said that it wasn't unusual for property owners to weigh in on the appraisal process and that he was "perfectly willing to listen," while ultimately making his own professional judgment. McArdle's appraisal ultimately came in at $43.3 million. In an email exchange as a ballpark figure was becoming clear, he and some lawyers for the Trump company strategized about how to present it to their client. McArdle said Thursday that Eric Trump may have had a "more lofty value" in mind, but a higher appraisal wouldn't have been credible.
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With one of the attorneys suggesting that the number might come under scrutiny from tax authorities or a court, the email discussion was a leadup "to finally tell Eric he should accept this value from the professionals that probably know this better than he," McArdle testified. Shortly after that email discussion, Eric Trump wrote that he'd spoken to one of the attorneys and told McArdle to hold off sending the appraisal. McArdle said he wasn't told why, noting that appraisals often "have a lot of stops and starts." He said he didn't believe the final appraisal ever was sent. Trump's financial statements went on to list the golf course at values sometimes topping $100 million, according to James' lawsuit. The villas weren't built. Lawyers for the Trumps haven't yet had their turn to question McArdle.
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