A New York judge on Thursday ordered former President Donald Trump and his children Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. to testify under oath about the Trump Organization’s business practices as part of the state Attorney General’s civil investigation.
State Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron determined that the former president and his two children may be called to testify within the next three weeks.
The Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, were indicted in July 2021 for crimes related to tax evasion.
Trump’s attorneys, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, tried to quash subpoenas from Attorney General Letitia James’s office, arguing that their investigation is politically motivated.
Prosecutors have been sifting through Trump’s tax records, subpoenaing documents and interviewing witnesses, including Trump insiders and company executives.
Trump at the time ridiculed Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance’s investigation as “rude, nasty and totally biased” in its treatment of Trump company attorneys, representatives and long-term employees.
The former president said the company’s actions were “things that are standard practice throughout the US business community, and in no way a crime.”
The Manhattan district attorney’s investigation of Weisselberg, 73, stemmed in part from questions about her son’s use of a Trump apartment at little or no cost, the family’s rental cars and rent payments. tuition made to a school attended by Weisselberg’s grandchildren.
Weisselberg pleaded not guilty to the tax evasion charges.
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