Trump and his kids headline lengthy witness list in New York fraud case

Prosecutors intend to call Donald Trump and his three eldest children as witnesses in the sprawling $250 million business fraud lawsuit filed by New York attorney general Letitia James.

The attorney general's office proposed a list of 57 witnesses in recent appellate court filings that maps out the immense scope of the case, which includes not only Trump family members but some of the former president's most loyal bankers in a trial aimed at destroying his real estate empire, reported The Daily Beast.

"The American public will hear directly from Rosemary Vrablic, Trump’s guardian angel at Deutsche Bank who kept extending him a lifeline even when his businesses floundered — that is, until she eventually resigned in the days after Trump’s attempts to stage a presidential coup culminated in the violent Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection," wrote investigative reporter Jose Pagliery. "The AG’s office plans to question five other current and former bankers there."

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"The list also includes Peter Welch, a former senior vice president at Capital One bank, and Jack Weisselberg, a director at Ladder Capital Finance who happens to be a son of the disgraced one-time Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg — who spent several months at Rikers Island jail for cheating on his taxes," Pagliery added.

Prosecutors also intend to call eight current and former employees at the real estate services firm Cushman and Wakefield, which Judge Arthur F. Engoron briefly held in contempt last year for refusing to turn over documents related to its valuation of Trump properties that James has deemed to be fraudulent.

Engoron, who is overseeing the bench trial and will decide the outcome himself, will hear from current and former employees at insurance companies Tokio Marine and Zurich who may have been duped by Trump's alleged fraud scheme.

The attorney general's office intends to call former Trump fixer Michael Cohen, who was convicted and disbarred for his actions while working for the former president, and longtime MazarsUSA accountant Donald Bender.

Trump himself would be the biggest witness by far if he's finally forced to testify about his allegedly fraudulent business scheme, such as adding 20,000 square feet to his Manhattan penthouse, and his testimony would come under penalty of perjury and supervised by an authoritative judge.

The state also plans to call Ivanka Trump, who was initially a defendant in the case, as well as Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump when the trial begins, which the former president's lawyers are still trying to stall but remains on the court schedule for Oct. 2.