OAN’s James Meyers
11:28 AM – Friday, October 27, 2023
The judge of Donald Trump’s $250 million civil fraud trial has ordered his daughter Ivanka Trump to testify in the case.
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Judge Arthur Engoron denied a request on Friday to stop the subpoena for her to testify, but said she would not be testifying before November 1st to allow her time to appeal the decision.
This comes after Trump’s attorneys previously challenged New York Attorney General Letitia James’ (D-N.Y.) subpoena to Ivanka, noting an appeals court had ruled earlier this year that she should be dropped as a defendant in the case over statute of limitations issues.
The former president’s legal team argued that James was trying “to continue to harass and burden President Trump’s daughter long after” the appeals court “mandated she be dismissed from the case.”
However, the AG’s office countered that Ivanka still has information important to their case.
“While no longer a Defendant in this action, she indisputably has personal knowledge of facts relevant to the claims against the remaining individual and entity Defendants. But even beyond that, Ms. Trump remains financially and professionally intertwined with the Trump Organization and other Defendants and can be called as a person still under their control,” the AG contended in a court filing.
Additionally, the office said it wanted to ask her questions regarding Trump’s former Washington, D.C. hotel, and claimed that she profited from the sale.
“Ms. Trump remains under the control of the Trump Organization, including through her ongoing and substantial business ties to the organization,” the AG argued, adding that she “does not seem to be averse to her involvement in the family business when it comes to owning and collecting proceeds from the OPO (hotel) sale, the Trump Organization purchasing insurance for her and her companies, managing her household staff and credit card bills, renting her apartment or even paying her legal fees in this action. It is only when she is tasked with answering for that involvement that she disclaims any connection.”
James is suing the former president for allegedly inflating his assets through financial statements to receive more cost-effective loans and insurance policies.
Trump throughout the case has denied any wrongdoing and has called the trial a “witch hunt.”
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