(Alex Wong/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump speaks with his daughter and senior adviser Ivanka Trump during a press conference at the White House in March 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 Ivanka Trump’s lawyers to suppress her testimony, though 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.
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 has still been identified by the New York Attorney General’s Office as a potential witness they could call in the case.
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.
