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As proceedings in the $250 million civil fraud trial against Donald Trump continue on Tuesday, Trump's estranged niece Mary Trump mocked the former president for his statements about the size of his penthouse, saying, "Small man. Small Condo."
Mary Trump—a clinical psychologist and daughter of the former president's older brother, Fred—is a vocal critic of Trump as she frequently takes to social media to voice her opposition to her uncle and has continued to do so since the start of Trump's civil fraud trial on October 2. As part of New York Attorney General Letitia James' lawsuit, Trump is accused of filing fraudulent statements that inflated the value of his properties and assets for years in order to obtain financial perks.
One of those properties is the Trump Tower Triplex, a penthouse in which James unveiled details in 2022 alleging Trump valued his triplex apartment at $327 million in 2015 and 2016 financial statements based on claims it was 30,000 square feet in size.
However, the actual size of Trump's triplex apartment was 10,996 square feet.
In a post shared to X, formerly Twitter, in response to the court proceedings, Mary Trump mocked her uncle's previous statement that claimed the apartment was 30,000 square feet.
"Donald's civil trial in NYC is going as well as expected for him. Donald declared in a statement that his Trump Tower condominium was 30k square feet. The government just produced evidence it's actually 10,996. Small man. Small condo," Mary Trump wrote on X.
While Trump, the frontrunner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, has denied any wrongdoing in connection to James' suit, James alleges that former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg signed off on statements that vastly overvalued Trump's properties—despite appraisers offering their own estimates—and changed them to meet the former president's demands.
However, in court proceedings on Tuesday, Weisselberg testified that Trump's triplex apartment in Trump Tower is 10,996 square feet, which is a third of the size that Trump claimed on financial documents.
According to ABC News, on Tuesday Louis Solomon, an attorney with the New York attorney general's office showed evidence in the case that included a page with Trump's signature, emails from Forbes magazine that sought clarity about the size of the apartment, and a letter signed by Weisselberg certifying the 30,000 square foot figure to the Trump Organization's then-accountant, Mazars USA.
Confronted by the evidence Weisselberg appeared to struggle to explain the discrepancy but eventually testified that the penthouse is 10,996 square feet
"Forbes was right, the triplex was actually only 10,996, right?" Solomon asked in court.
"Right," Weisselberg said.
Weisselberg, whose loyalty to Trump stretches back decades, served 100 days of a five-month sentence after pleading guilty to 15 felony charges in a separate case regarding a tax evasion scheme carried out by the Trump Organization.
Court proceedings in New York will continue to rule over six remaining allegations in James' lawsuit, as well as the size of the penalty, which could see Trump having his companies and properties removed from his control or dissolved.
Newsweek has reached out to Donald Trump campaign via email.
About the writer
Natalie Venegas is a Weekend Reporter at Newsweek based in New York. Her focus is reporting on education, social justice ... Read more