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President Donald Trump speaks as his daughter and senior adviser Ivanka Trump looks on during a news conference on the latest developments in the coronavirus outbreak in the United States in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, March 20, 2020.
NEW YORK (CNN) — Ivanka Trump must testify in her father’s New York civil fraud trial, a judge overseeing the case ruled Friday.
New York Judge Arthur Engoren denied a request by her lawyers to quash a subpoena for Ivanka Trump’s testimony, although he said her testimony should not be scheduled before Wednesday to appeal his ruling.
After an appeals court removed her as a defendant in the case, her lawyer argued that Ivanka Trump should not be compelled to appear.
“Ms. Trump clearly took advantage of the privilege of doing business in New York,” Engoron said.
The judge also said Ivanka should have submitted an affidavit certifying that she does not currently live or work in the state. “She is the only one who can tell us that and it’s too late to do that now,” Nkoron said.
Following his decision, Engoron quickly denied a follow-up request from Donald Trump’s attorney Chris Kiss for a deposition from Ivanka Trump taken in Florida. “We want her here in person,” Engoron said, noting that he wants to hear the testimony live in court.
Donald Trump’s children are expected to be called to testify next week, and the former president may be called to testify the following week, the attorney general’s office said in court Friday.
The attorney general’s team is nearing the end of its witness list in its case in the civil fraud trial against Trump and his co-defendants, including Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.
The attorney general’s team mapped out the remainder of their case in open court on Friday. They will have the opportunity to call additional witnesses in the rebuttal case after the trial of Trump’s defense case.
Attorneys for the AG, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump, are expected to testify a day from Wednesday, although Ivanka Trump’s testimony will depend on the status of her appeal.
After that, the attorney general’s office expects to call Trump as a final witness during the week of November 6.
The witness schedule may change or change at any time, so dates are not set.
Attorneys for Donald and Ivanka Trump argued that Ivanka Trump had not lived or worked in New York since 2017 and therefore the court had no jurisdiction over her, accusing New York Attorney General Letitia James of seeking her testimony to create a media spectacle.
“President Trump’s continuing harassment of children,” Kiss said.
“They want a free-for-all for one of President Trump’s children,” Kiss said. “They want her in the courtroom so it can be filled with media and we can have another circus day.”
Ivanka Trump was listed as a co-defendant in a $250 million lawsuit filed last September by James, along with Donald Trump, Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and several other Trump Organization executives, alleging a massive fraud. The scheme, which lasted more than a decade, was used by the former president and his eldest children to enrich themselves.
However, in June, a New York Court of Appeals Ivanka rejected Trump As a co-defendant, Ivanka found that the claims against Trump are too old because she was not part of the August 2021 agreement between James’ office and the Trump Organization to toll the statute of limitations.
Ivanka Trump’s lawyer, Bennett Moskowitz, argued that she has not lived or worked in New York since 2017, so the court has no jurisdiction over her. Ivanka offered to file a signed affidavit saying that much.
Moskowitz argued that he is no longer a party to the case, and neither are the New York-registered businesses to which the AG’s office served the subpoena.
Another Trump lawyer, Cliff Robert, said Eric Trump is willing to be the Trump Organization’s corporate representative because he’s going to testify at trial anyway.
A lawyer for the Attorney General’s Office, Kevin Wallace, argued that Ivanka Trump is still tied to the Trump Organization and has personal knowledge of the loan for the Old Post Office project in Washington, DC.
The attorney general’s complaint alleges that Ivanka Trump is responsible for fraud on a Deutsche Bank loan granted to Trump and his company for an old post office project.
“He ran that program, not Eric Trump,” Wallace said.
Because she personally profited from the old Post Office deal, Wallace said, Ivanka Trump acted in her own self-interest when she negotiated the loan with Deutsche Bank.
Encoron asked the attorney general’s lawyer about the possibility of limiting the scope of his questioning to the old Post Office loan with Deutsche Bank.
This story and topic have been updated with additional improvements.
