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The massive fine announced Friday for the civil fraud trial against Donald Trump wasnt just a major financial blow for the former president. Two of his adult children were hit hard, too.

In his ruling, Justice Arthur Engoron, who previously had found that the Trump organization committed fraud by inflating Trumps net worth, decided that Trump and his top associates at the Trump Organization owed an astounding $355 million in damages. On top of that, Trump was banned from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation or other legal entity in New York for a period of three years.

It was a devastating result for the former president in what was arguably the most personal of his legal challenges. The outcome fell only a little short of the $370 million penalty the prosecution had pushed for.

For the Trump children, this was bad news, too. Both of Trumps adult sons, Eric and Don Jr., who are executive vice presidents of the Trump Organization, wound up owing more than $4 million each in damages. They, like their father, were also banned from doing business in New Yorkthough their ban is for two years, one year less than their father.

One Trump child turned out fine: Ivanka Trump was not a defendant in the case, as she had left the Trump Organization in 2016. But that didnt mean this was a painless situation for her. Like her two other adult siblings who were active in the Trump business (the ever-forgotten Tiffany was blessed to escape getting involved in any of this), Ivanka was still forced to testify, an ordeal that threatened her composed image.

The three Trump children all testified in November. Ivanka Trump, who had the least to fear, took the stand on Nov. 8. She was polite and stuck to her talking points: Though she was an executive vice president of the Trump Organization from 2005 to 2016, she had not had any personal insights into the financial statements. She reiterated her fathers PR claims: The Trump Organization had taken dingy properties and turned them into works of art. She was calm, she smiled often, and she remained quiet on social media.

Donald Trump Jr. took a slightly different tack, going for a strange sort of bro-ish charm inside the courthouse, but acting as an outraged firebrand on the outside. In the courtroom, Don Jr. similarly testified that he had had nothing to do with the records and cracked a few jokes. On social media, he was more aggressive, accusing the prosecutors of being corrupt and having a brazen political mission. Still, he was more astute than his father, choosing not to antagonize the judge in the case (instead only going after New York Attorney General Letitia James).

Eric Trump mimicked his elder brother, to slightly less impressive effect. He similarly shared posts about James. But in his testimony about his personal culpability, he came off more bungling. Like his brother, Eric Trump said he never had anything to do with the financial statements. He then had to change his tune when the prosecution showed him an email in which Eric had clearly indicated he looked at a spreadsheet about them.

Ivanka came out the most unscathed. Even if she never works in politics or the Trump business again, her husband, Jared Kushner, has made a career of working out business deals with oligarchs in the Middle East. But its unclear how the two elder Trump sons will fare while theyre locked out of New Yorks business world for two years. Sure, theyll be involved in their fathers political career, but if he fails to win the 2024 election, that wont carry them. They can, for a while at least, keep going on podcasts. And Don Jr. has his hunting magazine.

Trump Sr. is still facing four criminal trials: charges of falsified business statements over hush payments to Stormy Daniels; charges he mishandled classified records; charges in Georgia over his meddling in the 2020 presidential election there; and federal charges over his efforts to overturn the election. The first trial, over hush money payments, is currently set for March 25.

Read the original:
Why Don Jr. and Eric Are in Trouble in the New Trump Rulingand Ivanka Is Not - Slate

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