Ivanka Trump Will Be Forced to Testify in Father's Trial After Judge's Ruling
Ivanka Trump must testify in court next week in the civil lawsuit against her family’s business in New York, the judge in the case has ruled.
While no longer an executive for the Trump Organization, former President Donald Trump’s eldest daughter must appear in court, along with two of her brothers, before the case wraps up next month.
Ivanka Trump challenged the demand that she appear in court, but Judge Arthur Engoron ruled in favor of New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office on Friday, NBC News reported.
Prosecutors argued her testimony was necessary despite the fact she is not a defendant in the case.
Ivanka Trump can appeal the ruling, but as it stands, she is likely to be called to testify in a Manhattan courtroom on Nov. 3, prosecutor Kevin Wallace said.
Her brothers Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump will testify before her, on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, Wallace said.
Donald Trump is expected to testify on Nov. 6, and the case will wrap up shortly after.
An appeals court ruled earlier this year that Ivanka Trump could not be subpoenaed to testify in the civil case. Attorneys for Trump cited that ruling in a statement challenging Engoron’s ruling.
The legal team accused James’ office of an attempt “to continue to harass and burden President Trump’s daughter long after” another court had “mandated she be dismissed from the case.”
James’ office said that while Ivanka Trump is no longer affiliated with her family’s business, she has intricate knowledge of it.
“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,” the AG’s office said in a statement.
“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,” it said.
Donald Trump is being sued for $250 million after James alleged he inflated his company’s assets for years in order to secure favorable loans and insurance offers.
Trump has denied James’ claims and has charged the lawsuit, which is not criminal, is politically motivated.
Engoron has also faced scrutiny and was seen smiling from ear to ear at the beginning of the case.
The Democratic judge also later agreed with a highly questionable assessment that Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and resort was worth only $18 million to $27 million.
The Trump family believes the historic, oceanside property in Palm Beach, Florida, is worth upward of $1 billion.
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