Donald Trump Jr asked a courtroom sketch artist to “make me look sexy” after giving testimony during a $250m fraud trial.
The former US President’s eldest son made the request after spending several hours on the witness stand during a second day of giving evidence at the civil hearing on Thursday.
MrTrump Jr, 45, insisted he was never involved or aware of financial statements that New York state lawyers say fraudulently inflated his father’s wealth and the value of the family business.
The statements were given to banks, insurers and other organisations to secure loans and broker deals.
Donald Trump, his company and senior executives – including Trump Jr and his brother, Eric, 39, who are both Trump Organization executive vice presidents and entrusted to run their father’s empire – have all denied wrongdoing.
But the presiding judge, Arthur Engoron, has already decided in favour of the prosecution – with the hearing taking place to determine the punishment.
New York’s attorney-general Letitia James is seeking a penalty of at least $250m (£205m) and a ban on Trump and his sons from running a business in New York.
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When Trump Jr finished giving evidence, court sketch artist Jane Rosenberg revealed he asked her to produce a flattering portrait, telling her “make me look sexy”.
He referred to an image she created of former cryptocurrency tycoon, Sam Bankman-Fried,who is a defendant in a criminal fraud trial.
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Bankman-Fried was depicted with a chiselled jaw and spiky hair – which Trump Jr said made him look like a “superstar”, Rosenberg told Reuters news agency.
Image: Trump Jr under questioning in a court sketch by artist Jane Rosenberg commissioned by Reuters news agency
Image: Donald Trump Jr appeared at the New York State Supreme Court in New York City
During his testimony, Trump Jr said he believed his father’s statements were “materially accurate”.
He told the court the former president maintained the documents had “lowballed” his wealth and the value of assets, including skyscrapers, golf courses and properties.
He insisted he only dealt with financial statements in passing, signing them off as a trustee and giving them to lenders to comply with loan requirements.
Image: A sketch showing Trump Jr being questioned by lawyer Colleen Faherty, watched by Judge Arthur Engoron
Image: Trump Jr, centre, and his younger brother, Eric, were entrusted to run their father’s empire
Case is ‘purely a political persecution’
And he reiterated that he relied on assurances from company finance executives before “signing off accordingly”.
Speaking outside court, Mr Trump Jr said he believed his testimony “went really well, if we were actually dealing with logic and reason, the way business is conducted.”
The case was “purely a political persecution”, he told reporters.
“I think it’s a truly scary precedent for New York for me, for example, before even having a day in court, I’m apparently guilty of fraud for relying on my accountants to do, wait for it…accounting.”
Image: Eric Trump leaving the court room on Thursday
Image: A court sketch of Eric Trump by Jane Rosenberg
Eric Trump also testified on Thursday, insisting he had “no involvement and never worked on my father’s statement of financial condition”, adding that he “didn’t know anything about it, really, until this case came into fruition”.
“That’s not what I did for the company”, he maintained – telling the court his role was focused on “pouring concrete” – constructing and operating properties.
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On Thursday, Mr Trump – the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination – said on his Truth Social platform that the trial was “RIGGED” and branded it a “Miscarriage of Justice” and “Election Interference”.
Ms James and the judge are both Democrats.
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Mr Trump posted: “The Trump Organization is Financially Strong, Powerful, Very Liquid AND HAS DONE NOTHING WRONG.”
The 45th US president – the only one to be impeached twice – faces legal cases in five different states across the country, with two separate actions in New York.
Dozens of websites, banks and apps are being affected by a major internet outage.
The problem, which started on Monday morning, appears to be related to an issue at Amazon Web Services (AWS).
As of 9.20am, there were more than 2,000 reports of the Amazon Web Services outage in the US alone, according to Downdetector, which monitors issues and outages in real-time.
On its service status page, the company said it was seeing “increased error rates” and delays with “multiple AWS services”.
Here’s what we know so far.
Image: Pic: PA
Image: Pic: PA
Image: Pic: PA
What has been affected?
Multiple banks, the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) website, mobile phone networks and video-chatting platform Zoom are among the websites having technical issues.
All Amazon products – including Prime Video and Amazon Music – have also been affected, as well as the main Amazon website.
Here’s a full list of what has been affected by the internet outage, according to Downdetector:
• Snapchat • Ring • Roblox • Amazon Web Services • Life360 • My Fitness Pal • Amazon • Xero • Signal • Canva • Fortnite • Blink Security • Zoom • HMRC • Clash Royale • Clash Of Clans • Asana • Wordle • Slack • Smartsheet • Epic Games Store • Duolingo • Amazon Alexa • Jira • Vodafone • Tidal • Coinbase • Atlassian • IMDB • Amazon Prime Video • Pokemon Go • BT • Peloton • EE • Ancestry • Square • Playstation Network • Eventbrite • Amazon Music • Sky • Flickr • Hay Day • Rocket League • Perplexity AI • Dead By Daylight • Bank Of Scotland • Lloyds Bank • Halifax
What has AWS said?
AWS confirmed it was suffering from “increased error rates and latencies” for multiple services.
Amazon Web Services was named as the cause of the problem by the chief executive of AI company Perplexity.
Aravind Srinivas posted on X saying: “Perplexity is down right now. The root cause is an AWS issue. We’re working on resolving it.”
AWS describes itself as “the world’s most comprehensive” cloud service.
It offers companies a virtual backbone, giving them access to servers, databases and storage without having to build their own infrastructure.
Millions of businesses are thought to use AWS, so when something goes wrong, it can have a huge impact. AWS hasn’t put out any information on the outage. Sky News has contacted the company for comment.
In a statement on its website, the company said: “We are actively engaged and working to both mitigate the issue and understand root cause,” an update on its website says.
“We will provide an update in 45 minutes, or sooner if we have additional information to share.”
The company is posting regular updates on the situation and said its engineers were “immediately engaged” as soon as they spotted the issue.
Concentrated in the US
ThousandEyes, a website that tracks the performance of local and wide area networks, servers and applications, shows many of the outages appear to be concentrated in the US.
A large portion is focused in Virginia, which is widely considered as the global capital for data centres.
Donald Trump has responded to so-called “No Kings” rallies with an AI video of himself in a fighter jet, pouring brown sludge over protesters.
Millions of people were expected to take part in the demonstrations this weekend – the second such gathering after an initial nationwide day of protest in June coinciding with the US president’s birthday.
The term “No Kings” reflects the belief by some that Mr Trump is behaving like a “king” and some in his administration are depicting him as a monarch.
Image: A protester in costume as Donald Trump presents the president as a prisoner in chains in Seattle. Pic: AP
Image: One of the rallies in New York. Pic: Reuters
On Sunday, the president shared the AI video on his social media platform, Truth Social.
In the clip, an AI-generated version of Mr Trump is wearing a crown and sitting in a jet with “King Trump” written across it, to the soundtrack of Kenny Loggins’ Danger Zone, from the film Top Gun.
The jet then drops thick brown sludge on to AI-generated protesters.
Supporters say the marches are a patriotic defence of free speech, while critics are calling them anti-American.
Image: A large inflatable effigy of Mr Trump in Chicago. Pic: Reuters
Image: This protest took place in Washington DC. Pic: AP
Mr Trump’s Republican Party has dismissed the demonstrations as “Hate America” rallies.
Many of the events featured marching bands, huge banners and signs, as well as effigies of the president and demonstrators wearing inflatable costumes.
Image: Thousands gathered along the waterfront in Portland, Oregon. Pic: AP
Image: Protesters at the Wyoming State Capitol got creative with their signs. Pic: Wyoming Tribune Eagle/AP
The protests follow Mr Trump’s return to the White House and come against the backdrop of a government shutdown which has closed federal programmes and services.
There has also been criticism of what some see as an aggressive executive, confronting Congress and the courts, in ways that protest organisers believe are a slide toward authoritarianism.
Image: This event in San Francisco was among thousands taking place across the US. Pic: Reuters
Image: A ‘No Kings’ sign, outside City Hall in Los Angeles. Pic: Reuters
So far, the atmosphere at most of the protests appears to have been largely energetic and upbeat, with protesters calling for accountability and protections for civil liberties.
Organisers said events would be peaceful – a direct response to Republican and Trump administration claims that the protests could be unsafe.
Two survivors of a US airstrike, targeting what Donald Trump has described as a “drug-carrying submarine” in the Caribbean, have been repatriated to their home countries.
“It was my great honor to destroy a very large DRUG-CARRYING SUBMARINE that was navigating towards the United States on a well known narcotrafficking transit route,” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“US intelligence confirmed this vessel was loaded up with mostly Fentanyl, and other illegal narcotics,” he added.
The US military staged a helicopter rescue for the survivors on Thursday after the strike on their semi-submersible vessel, suspected of trafficking illegal narcotics. They were then transported to a US Navy warship.
Two other crew members on board were killed.
Image: The semi-submersible vessel was struck by US forces on Thursday, leaving two dead and two survivors. Pic: @realDonaldTrump/Truth Social
President Trump confirmed the survivors would be returned to their home countries of Colombia and Ecuador “for detention and prosecution”. Both countries subsequently confirmed they had been handed over.
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“America will not tolerate narcoterrorists trafficking illegal drugs, by land or by sea,” he added.
On Saturday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro posted on X: “We have received the Colombian detained on the narco submarine, we are happy he is alive and he will be processed according to the law.”
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1:58
Trump sends CIA into Venezuela and threatens land attack
The Trump administration has said previous strikes in the Caribbean have killed 27 people, raising concerns among some about the legality of the military operations.
The strikes also come against the backdrop of a US military buildup in the Caribbean that includes guided missile destroyers, F-35 fighter jets, a nuclear submarine and around 6,500 troops as the US president escalates a standoff with the Venezuelan government.
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0:59
Venezuelan president: ‘We don’t want a war’
On Wednesday, Mr Trump disclosed he had authorised the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela, adding to speculation in Caracas that the US is attempting to topple Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Mr Maduro has denied any connection to drug smuggling and claimed the US boat strikes are a pretext for regime change, and violations of sovereignty and international law.