Gaming giant Bally's paid Donald Trump’s company $60 million to buy the right to operate a public golf course in New York City, the former president's namesake son testified Thursday.
The terms of the lease transfer on the former Trump Golf Links Ferry Point hadn't been disclosed when the deal became public earlier this year. But the price emerged as Donald Trump Jr. was questioned on the witness stand Thursday at the civil fraud trial that's delving into the ex-president's finances and the family business' dealings.
Trump Jr. said the sales price was $60 million but the Trump Organization had incurred “a lot of costs” over the years, so he wasn't sure of the net profit. He was followed on the witness stand Thursday by his brother and fellow company executive Eric Trump.
The Trump Organization managed the 18-hole Bronx course, which is visible from the Whitestone Bridge and boasts views of the Manhattan skyline, from 2015 until this year. The city spent more than $120 million to build the Jack Nicklaus-designed course on an old landfill, envisioning an East Coast version of the famed Pebble Beach links and major championships that never materialized. It's now called Bally’s Golf Links at Ferry Point.
A phone message left with a Bally’s media relations representative wasn’t immediately returned.
The lease sale came after the city strove to strip the former president’s association with the course after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Following the insurrection, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio said he would scrap the contract with the Trump Organization, claiming that Trump had incited the rioters and thus given the city legal authority to do so, but a state judge rejected that argument.
The ruling last year would have allowed the Trump Organization to operate the course through the expiration of its lease in 2035. The Bally's deal was approved by both the city comptroller and the city’s parks department.
Donald Trump Jr., a Trump Organization executive vice president, was on the stand Thursday for a second day in the trial of New York Attorney General Letitia James' fraud lawsuit. She has accused the former president, his company and some executives of inflating his net worth on financial statements that went to banks and insurers to secure loans and make deals.
The former president and other defendants, including Donald Jr. and Eric, deny wrongdoing.
Like his brother, Eric Trump denied any involvement in his father’s financial statements, testifying: “I never had anything to do with the statement of financial condition.”
A state lawyer later pointed to an email Eric Trump received as far back as 2013 from a company executive who was asking for help with information he needed for Donald Trump’s financial statement.
“So you did know about your father’s annual financial statement as of August 2013?” state lawyer Andrew Amer asked.
“It appears that way,” Eric Trump said.
Donald Trump Jr. said that, despite the state’s allegations, he still believed his father’s financial statements were “materially accurate." His father has said that, if anything, the numbers listed on the documents low-balled his wealth and the value of his skyscrapers, golf courses and other properties.
Echoing his testimony of Wednesday, Trump Jr. insisted that he only dealt with the financial statements in passing — signing off on them as a trustee for his father’s trust and providing them to lenders to comply with loan requirements. He reiterated that he did so while relying on assurances from Trump Organization finance executives and an outside accounting firm that the information was accurate.
“If they assured me in their expert opinion that these things were fine, I would’ve been fine with that and signed off accordingly," he testified.
Outside the courthouse, Trump Jr. told reporters he thought his testimony went “really well, if we were actually dealing with logic and reason, the way business is conducted.”
“Unfortunately, the attorney general has brought forth a case that is purely a political persecution,” he said. “I think it’s a truly scary precedent for New York for me, for example, before even having a day in court, I’m apparently guilty of fraud for relying on my accountants to do, wait for it: accounting.”
Donald Trump, the former president and current front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination, is scheduled to testify Monday. He reiterated on his Truth Social media site Thursday that he sees the trial as “RIGGED,” a “Miscarriage of Justice,” and “Election Interference.” James and Judge Arthur Engoron are Democrats.
“The Trump Organization is Financially Strong, Powerful, Very Liquid, AND HAS DONE NOTHING WRONG,” Trump wrote.
