A New York judge has rejected Ivanka Trump’s legal maneuver to try to avoid taking the stand in her father’s fraud trial next week while she appeals an order to testify in the case.
She had argued testifying would place ‘undue hardship’ on her – and noted the scheduled testimony next week comes in the middle of a school week. She and husband Jared Kushner are parents to three children.
Judge Arthur Engoron, who is overseeing the case, had already ordered Ivanka to testify in the case, even as her lawyers have asked an appeals court to overturn the decision.
But he denied a motion by her legal team seeking a stay of his decision while she appeals it to a higher court.
The latest legal wrangling came Thursday night, at the end of a day where Trump son and Trump Organization executive Eric Trump took the stand and repeatedly testified that he knew nothing about financial statements about the value of company assets in its golf and real estate empire.
The company’s ability to keep doing business in New York state is on the line, as New York AG Letitia James seeks $250 million in penalties after the judge already issued a finding of fraud.
Ivanka Trump is appealing an order compelling her to testify in her father’s civil case. Her team argues she has moved to Florida and walked away from her role in the Trump Organization
The former president, who has repeatedly attacked the judge and James, is set to take the stand for his own blockbuster testimony Monday. His daughter, who helped manage real estate projects including the former Trump hotel in Washington, DC, would take the stand on Wednesday.
Ivanka Trump joined her father as a White House advisor during his time in office, while her brothers Don Jr. and Eric worked as executives helping run their father’s company.
Her team was able to argue that she deserves to stay out of the legal drama. She and husband Jared Kushner have left New York and relocated to Florida, and they says she has not returned to the business.
Her lawyers invoked her role as a mother to try to avoid the stand.
‘Ms. Trump, who resides in Florida with her three minor children, will suffer undue hardship if a stay is denied and she is required to testify at trial in New York in the middle of a school week, in a case she has already been dismissed from, before her appeal is heard,’ her lawyer wrote in the appeal seeking to block the order to testify.
But Judge Arthur Engoron has pointed to documents that still point to ownership and management ties to justify her inclusion in the case.
The legal wrangling comes during a week when Ivanka’s brother Donald Trump Jr. testified
Eric Trump is set to get grilled on the stand for a second consecutive day Friday
Judge Arthur Engoron denied to issue a stay of an order that Ivanka testify even as she argues an appeal
Former President Trump has blasted the judge, who imposed a $10,000 fine saying his comments violated a gag order
‘Ms. Trump has clearly availed herself of the privilege of doing business in New York,’ Engoron said.
The former president has fumed at the proceedings, even while opting to attend court sessions in person while blasting his perceived enemies from inside the courthouse.
‘Leave my children alone, Engoron. You are a disgrace to the legal profession!’ he told the judge, who imposed a gag order earlier in the case and fined him after an attack on his chief legal clerk.