In the fraud trial against former US President Donald Trump, his daughter Ivanka is to testify. The responsible New York judge, Arthur Engoron, rejected a request from the defense on Friday to declare the 41-year-old’s summons from the public prosecutor’s office invalid. He also gave Ivanka Trump until November 1st to appeal the decision.
In the civil lawsuit, the ex-president is accused of having inflated the assets of his real estate empire over the years in order to get better conditions for loans and insurance. The proceedings are also directed against Trump’s eldest sons Donald Trump Junior and Eric Trump.
New York State Attorney General Letitia James also originally sued Ivanka Trump, who had long been a close adviser to her father. The allegations against the daughter of the 77-year-old Republican, who wants to run again in the presidential election in November 2024, were later dropped. James still wants her to testify in court.
Judge Engoron had already ruled before the trial began that Trump overstated the assets of his real estate and thereby committed “fraud.” The civil process is therefore particularly concerned with the question of how high the penalty will be. Attorney General James has demanded, among other things, a fine of $250 million (235 million euros). She also wants Trump and his two eldest sons to no longer be allowed to run companies in New York. The ex-president is not threatened with a prison sentence in this case.
Trump, who repeatedly appears at the trial in person, has rejected all allegations and described them as politically motivated. In addition to the civil case, the ex-president has been charged in four criminal cases. Two charges concern the right-wing populist’s attempts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and thus stay in power.
