By JENNIFER PELTZ and MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press
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NEW YORK — Eric Trump, one of two sons entrusted to run Donald Trump’s real estate empire, swore Thursday that he was never involved with or aware of financial statements that New York state lawyers say fraudulently puffed up the ex-president’s wealth and the worth of the family business.

But when a state lawyer pulled up decade-old emails in which a fellow Trump Organization executive asked him for information needed to complete one of his dad’s financial statements, the irritated son strove to clarify.

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“We’re a major organization, a massive real estate organization — yes, I’m fairly sure I understand that we have financial statements. Absolutely,” Eric Trump testified. But, he insisted: “I had no involvement and never worked on my father’s statement of financial condition.”

Later, when told another Trump Organization figure testified about him being on a video call about his dad’s financial statement as recently as 2021, Eric Trump said he couldn’t remember.

“I’m on a thousand calls a day,” he said.

Eric Trump followed brother Donald Trump Jr. in testifying Thursday at the family’s New York civil fraud trial, a prelude to their father’s scheduled testimony on Monday. Both sons are Trump Organization executive vice presidents.

Just before court adjourned, with Eric Trump watching from the witness stand, the judge laid into the defense for dragging his law clerk into their complaints about his handling of the trial.

The clerk was the target of a false and disparaging Trump social media post early in the trial, leading Engoron to impose a gag order barring parties in the case from smearing court staff.

Engoron, raising his voice at times, raised the possibility of expanding the gag order but took no action. The judge said he suspected “a bit of misogyny” toward the clerk, who sits alongside him. Trump’s lawyers denied the allegation.

Trump lawyer Christopher Kise sparked Engoron’s fury by calling out the clerk for passing notes to the judge. He said: “I feel like I’m fighting two adversaries” and said the defense team perceived there was “co-judging taking place.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James is suing Donald Trump, his company and top executives including Eric and Donald Jr., accusing them of inflating the ex-president’s net worth on annual financial statements that were given to banks, insurers and others to secure loans and make deals.

The former president and other defendants deny wrongdoing.

Donald Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination, reiterated on his Truth Social platform Thursday that he sees the trial as “RIGGED,” a “Miscarriage of Justice,” and “Election Interference.” James and the judge who will decide the case, Arthur Engoron, are Democrats.

“The Trump Organization is Financially Strong, Powerful, Very Liquid, AND HAS DONE NOTHING WRONG,” Trump wrote.

Eric Trump, as he started his testimony, said he “never had anything to do with the statement of financial condition,” didn’t believe he’d ever seen one and ”didn’t know anything about it, really, until this case came into fruition.”

“It’s not what I did for the company,” said the son, who has insisted his interests lie mainly in “pouring concrete” — constructing and operating properties. He said that while he knew the company had financial documents, he “was not personally aware of the statement of financial condition.”

State lawyer Andrew Amer then showed him 2013 emails from then-Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney. He explained to Eric Trump, then in a different role at the company, that he was “working on your father’s statement of financial condition” and needed information on one of the company’s properties.

In another email that year, McConney said he was “working on the notes to Mr. Trump’s annual financial statement” and asked Eric and others for an update on any major construction work that had recently been started.