According to a court filing that was made public on Monday, New York Attorney General Letitia James recently subpoenaed Donald Trump and his two oldest children, Ivanka and Don Jr. She is demanding their testimony in connection with an ongoing civil investigation into the family’s business practices.
The filing stated that the subpoenas for Trump, his son, Donald Trump Jr., and his daughter, Ivanka Trump, stem from an investigation “into the valuation of properties owned or controlled” by Trump and the Trump Organization.
In December, reports of the attorney general’s attempt to get a testimony from Trump surfaced, but the court filing on Monday was the first time it had been publicly revealed that investigators were also seeking information from Ivanka and Don Jr.
The Trumps are expected to set up a legal fight similar to one that played out last year when James subpoenaed another of Trump’s sons. Last month, Trump sued James, alleging that the investigation violated his constitutional rights in a “thin[ly] veiled effort to publicly malign Trump and his associates.”
For over two years, New York Attorney General Letitia James has been looking into whether the Trump Organization misled tax officials or banks about the value of its assets, either minimizing them to save on taxes or inflating them to secure better loan terms. Earlier this year, former District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. gained access to Trump’s tax record after a fight that lasted years and went to the Supreme Court twice.
Vance convened a new grand jury to hear evidence before Trump left office last year, which resulted in tax fraud charges in July against Allen Weisselberg, the longtime CFO of the Trump Organization. Weisselberg pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Both of these investigations stem from allegations made by Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, that Trump had a history of misrepresenting the value of assets.
Letitia James has also been investigating similar claims regarding Trump’s office building in NYC, a hotel in Chicago, and a golf course in LA.
