Ivanka Trump spent her entire adult life working at her father Donald Trump’s businesses and in his White House. But as his legal woes have worsened in the past year, Ivanka repeatedly made it clear that she no longer wants to be associated with him.
Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, began quietly distancing themselves from Donald’s political operation in the final weeks of his administration. Instead of attending Trump’s reelection-campaign launch in November 2022, Ivanka announced that she does not “plan to be involved in politics” going forward. When Donald was hit with his first indictment in March 2023, Ivanka put out a stunningly ambiguous statement expressing her support for her dad and/or the U.S. justice system. Since then, Trump’s eldest daughter has avoided being seen with him in public or even on Instagram.
Yet New York attorney general Letitia James kept dragging Ivanka into the ongoing civil suit against Donald, just because some of the alleged business fraud at the center of the case relates to her. So Ivanka tried to fight James’s efforts to force her to testify — but she failed. On Friday, Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Ivanka to testify. “Ms. Trump has clearly availed herself of the privilege of doing business in New York,” Engoron said.
After issuing his decision, Engoron denied a follow-up request from a Trump attorney to let Ivanka sit for a deposition in Florida. “We want her here in person,” Engoron said, according to CNN.
Ivanka was originally named as a defendant in the New York fraud case along with her brothers Eric and Don Jr. and other Trump Organization executives. But she was dismissed from the case in June, as she left the company in 2016, and an appellate court ruled that the case’s allegations against Ivanka were beyond the statute of limitations.
Nevertheless, James issued three subpoenas for Ivanka to testify in the trial. In papers filed late on October 19, Ivanka’s attorneys moved to have the subpoenas thrown out, arguing that they were not served correctly and the attorney general lacks the jurisdiction to force her to testify. They wrote:
Trial subpoenas are not a means for parties to get discovery, which they failed to obtain during pretrial proceedings. The NYAG, which never deposed Ms. Trump, is effectively trying to force her back into this case from which she was dismissed by a unanimous decision of the Appellate Division, First Department. Ms. Trump is not a party in this action. Nor is Ms. Trump a New York resident. It is black-letter law that, given those two facts, Ms. Trump is beyond the jurisdiction of this Court.
The NYAG knows this, which is why it has subpoenaed three corporate entities as an end run around its failure to pursue Ms. Trump’s deposition when it had the chance.
The attorney general’s office countered in a court filing that Ivanka “indisputably has personal knowledge of facts” relevant to the case, and “remains financially and professionally intertwined with the Trump Organization and other Defendants.”
“Ms. Trump remains under the control of the Trump Organization, including through her ongoing and substantial business ties to the organization,” the AG said, per NBC News, 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.”
Engoron said Ivanka cannot be called as a witness before November 1 to give her time to prepare.
Ivanka’s name has already come up in the trial. Earlier this month, Donald Bender, one of her father’s former accountants, testified that he flagged an error in how Ivanka’s Trump Park Avenue penthouse was valued on Donald’s financial documents verses how it was priced as an option for Ivanka to buy. As CNN explained, this was noted in the AG’s lawsuit:
The discrepancies were cited in the attorney general’s lawsuit last fall against Trump, alleging that Ivanka Trump was given the option to purchase the unit “lease that also granted her a rental payment substantially below the market rent for similar units in the building.”
“Ms. Trump’s rental agreement for Penthouse A in Trump Park Avenue included an option to purchase the unit for $8,500,000. But in the 2011 and 2012 Statements of Financial Condition, this unit was valued at $20,820,000 — approximately two and a half times as much as the option price, with no disclosure of the existence of the option,” the lawsuit says.
If Ivanka is stressed about the possibility that she’ll have to give damning testimony against her dad — once again — she’s trying not to show it. Last weekend she was spotted leaving Kim Kardashian’s 43rd birthday party at Funke’s in Beverley Hills. Ivanka and Kim were last seen together in October 2022, when they dined at another swanky Beverley Hills restaurant to show Javanka wasn’t mad at Kim about her ex-husband Kanye’s antisemitic remarks. This time, Ivanka was the one projecting confidence amid a spate of bad press. She glided out of the restaurant and totally ignored the paparazzi, not even turning her head as one photographer asked if she’s “afraid to testify” in her dad’s trial.
This post was updated after the ruling that Ivanka must testify.
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