Why Eric Trump Refused A Second Fraud Trial Testimony (Spoiler: Donald Stepped In)

Amidst the four criminal indictments against Donald Trump, he's also a co-defendant in the civil fraud case in New York brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James. Donald's courtroom behavior has been called out by the judge, and his derogatory social media posts about the judge and his courtroom clerk resulted in a gag order, preventing him from commenting on court staff.

His fellow co-defendants include Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization, and father and sons have all testified in the trial, answering questions by the prosecution. Now it's the defense's turn, and Eric was expected to come back to the stand in the first week of December. However, the day before the expected testimony, the defense lawyer advised that they wouldn't be calling on Eric.

Donald responded to the turn of events on Truth Social, saying it was at his behest: "I told my wonderful son, Eric, not to testify tomorrow at the RIGGED TRIAL," Trump wrote. "[...] Eric has already testified, PERFECTLY (Unlike their STAR witness-who admitted he lied!), so there is no reason to waste any more of this Crooked Court's time on having him say the same thing, over and over again, as a witness for the defense (us!)."

Donald Trump's Truth Social post went on about the impact that the trial was having on Eric Trump. "His young life has already been unfairly disturbed and disrupted enough on this corrupt Witch Hunt," the former president wrote. For his part, Eric hasn't posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, nor on Instagram about his non-appearance for the defense. However, he has been posting discount codes for people to order Trump Winery wine for the holidays.

When Eric testified in November for the fraud trial, he denied having much of anything to do with the financial statements that the judge had already determined to be fraudulent, despite evidence that he had signed off on their accuracy. After his testimony, he spoke with reporters, and he did post that video to social media in which he said: "We have one of the greatest companies anywhere in the world. We employ thousands of New Yorkers [...] We've never missed a payment. We've never defaulted on a loan. We've got some of the greatest properties in the world." He also spent time complaining about New York Attorney General Letitia James — all talking points that have been raised by his father and the Trump defense team.

While Eric Trump won't be taking the stand again, Donald Trump was set to testify another time in the trial, which Donald noted in his Truth Social post. "I will be testifying on Monday in this shameful, NO JURY ALLOWED 'TRIAL'," he wrote. Trump has railed about not having a jury in his civil trial, but at no point did his team of lawyers request to have one.

It's possible we'll see Eric again in the courtroom during Donald's return to the stand. During the early days of the trial, Eric's courtroom behavior involved shaking his head seemingly annoyed during the testimony of Michael Cohen, Donald's former lawyer and fixer. Donald seemed similarly annoyed, judging by his expression and hand gestures as Cohen testified, though he amped things up by unexpectedly leaving the courtroom on Cohen's second day of testimony. Perhaps we'll see a "like father, like son" moment from Eric during his dad's cross-examination.