Trump, His Children Will Not Testify After Defense Appeals Court Subpoenas - Report

Last week, the New York County Supreme Court ordered the children of former US President Donald Trump, Ivanka, and Donald Jr., to testify as part of the ongoing investigation into the Trump Organization's alleged financial misinformation.

Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. will not testify for the next two weeks, as their legal team appealed the ruling of Judge Arthur Engoron, who last Thursday denied “the motion by respondents Donald J. Trump, Ivanka and Donald Trump, Jr. to quash subpoenas issued by the petitioner” in December last year.

According to Business Insider, the testimony might even be delayed for several more months.

“They are not going to testify by March 10,” Trump lawyer Ron Fischetti told the news outlet, referring to the deadline for compliance with the attorney general's subpoenas that was set last week. “I don't think anybody thought that they were going to testify by that date.”

He noted that the appeal would be filed with the “state's appellate division early next week.”

The Trump Organization has been investigated jointly by the New York Attorney General Letitia James and the Manhattan District Attorney's Office since 2019, when the former president refused to disclose his tax returns. Prosecutors have suspected the company management of fraudulently overstating the value of his assets to secure bank loans and underestimating them in other cases to reduce taxes.

Trump, who stepped down as CEO of the Trump Organization in 2017 after taking office, passed the business on to his sons Donald Jr. and Eric. The latter was questioned earlier in 2020.

Ex-POTUS has repeatedly claimed that the probe into the company’s financial activities is a “politically motivated attack” by the Democratic Party. In an attempt to strike back, Trump filed a lawsuit against James and accused her of “political animus and a desire to harass, intimidate, and retaliate against a private citizen who she views as a political opponent.”

Meanwhile, James earlier announced that her office had “collected significant additional evidence indicating that the Trump Organization used fraudulent or misleading asset valuations to obtain a host of economic benefits, including loans, insurance coverage, and tax deductions.”