4:40 p.m. ET, November 1, 2023
Attorney General’s Office reviews Don Jr.’s various roles within the Trump Organization
By CNN’s Lauren del Valle, Kara Scannell and Jeremy Herb
When Donald Trump Jr. spoke Wednesday afternoon, Deputy Attorney General Colleen Faherty spent her first hour of questions walking through the former president’s son’s roles and responsibilities within the Trump Organization and as a administrator of his father’s revocable trust formed upon his entry. the White House.
Faherty has followed Trump Jr.’s progression within the Trump Organization since his arrival around 2001. He confirmed that he has been executive vice president at least since 2011.
Trump Jr. reported to his father until 2017, when Donald Trump took office, and he has said that the Trump Organization’s former chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, would have been higher up than him at least until ‘in 2013.
Trump Jr. and his brother Eric were on equal footing within the company, he said, but stuck to their own “silos.” (Eric Trump is expected to testify later this week.)
Trump Jr. said he did not know the details of Weisselberg’s departure, but said the former CFO had not retired and that it was related to “legal issues he had gotten into engaged”.
Trump’s eldest son also confirmed that he was named trustee of his father’s revocable trust after Trump took office. Weisselberg and Trump Jr. were named directors in 2017. Weisselberg was removed as a director in 2021 following his exit from the company.
Since leaving office in 2021, the former president has made some decisions at the company, his son said, but Trump Jr. said he hasn’t been able to identify anything specific.
He said Eric Trump was not a trustee of the trust and confirmed his brother did not have the authority to make decisions on behalf of the trust.
“He would have had the authority to make decisions within the Trump Organization,” Trump Jr. said, but not the trust. As trustee, Trump Jr. said it was his responsibility to act in the best interests of the beneficiary, his father, and confirmed that he managed the trust’s assets.
At one point in his questions, Faherty asked Trump Jr., “Are you familiar with the attorney general’s complaint in this case?”
“Vaguely, yes,” Trump Jr. said after a pause.