Ivanka Trump’s argument that she should be spared giving midweek testimony in her father Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial in New York because she is a busy mother of school-aged children in Florida was given short shrift by an appeals court.
The former president’s daughter, a senior adviser during his single term of office, asked the panel to set aside a ruling by a district court judge compelling her to testify next Wednesday, 8 November.
“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 lawyers said in a legal filing on Thursday.
They also argued that Trump had not lived or worked in New York since 2017, and was therefore beyond the jurisdiction of the Manhattan civil court.
But in an expedited ruling on Thursday night, the appeals court offered a curt, 11-word response.
“Application for interim stay pending decision on the motion is denied,” the judges wrote.
As a result, Trump will become the third child of the former president to give evidence in the trial, in which executives of the Trump Organization, including family members, deny wrongdoing.
However, the judge, Arthur Engoron, has already ruled that Donald Trump routinely and repeatedly deceived banks, insurers and others as he built his real estate empire.
On Thursday, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump testified, both denying knowledge of financial statements at the heart of the $250m trial, in which the New York attorney general, Letitia James, has stated the family illegally exaggerated asset and property values to gain favorable deals.
The siblings attempted to distance themselves from the day-to-day running of the Trump Organization, insisting they relied on accountants and senior staff.
But the attorney general’s office presented evidence that the brothers had sight of documents that suggested they had prior knowledge of statements Engoron already ruled contained clearly fraudulent valuations.
Eric Trump, who was defensive and sometimes combative during his testimony, was expected back on the stand on Friday.
His sister’s appearance will add a compelling new twist to the trial, in which Donald Trump has been fined twice by Engoron for breaching a gag order by posting derogatory comments about the judge’s staff.
Since leaving the White House, Ivanka Trump has put distance between herself and her father’s political aspirations, most notably by her refusal to publicly endorse his challenge for the Republican 2024 Republican nomination, a race he leads by a wide margin despite facing 91 criminal charges as well as two high-profile civil trials.
With her husband, Jared Kushner, another key figure in the Trump White House, Ivanka Trump moved to Miami following her father’s 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden.
Early speculation suggested she was intending to pursue a political career of her own, perhaps running for a US Senate seat in Florida, but she has opted instead for a mostly quiet life away from the headlines.
