Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. made TV appearances on Thursday to respond to the charges that have been filed against The Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg.
And the comments from ex-President Donald Trump’s sons, who are both executives in the Trump family business, raised plenty of eyebrows.
The Trump scions described the charging of the company and its CFO over an alleged tax fraud scheme (which both parties deny) as politically motivated and aimed at stopping their father from running for president again in 2024.
Per the indictment, the scheme sought to “compensate Weisselberg and other Trump Organization executives in a manner that was ‘off the books’” in that they “received substantial portions of their income through indirect and disguised means” to “substantially understate their compensation” and pay less tax.
But the Manhattan district attorney’s charges were “the political persecution of a political enemy,” Donald Trump Jr. declared on Fox News.
It was “no different” to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s treatment of opposition leader Alexei Navalny,” he argued, likening it to “banana republic stuff.”
Eric Trump, appearing on Newsmax, said he wasn’t worried about being charged himself because his family had “always lived amazingly clean lives.”
He then tried to divert attention from the charges with an attack on President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
Eric Trump later appeared on Fox News and railed against the district attorney’s office for focusing “on $3.5 million to take down a political opponent” when, he claimed, crime “is rampant” and people are leaving “dirty” and “disgusting” New York City “in record numbers.”
“I mean, this is what they do, this is New York state for you,” he claimed. “This is worse than a banana republic. It’s truly horrible.”
Eric Trump also appeared to dismiss the alleged scheme as being simply “employment perks” that shouldn’t be a criminal matter.
Twitter users were surprised by the ex-president’s sons commenting on the active investigation in the first place, with some even suggesting they were inadvertently putting their foot in it with their defenses: