When Ivanka Trump’s Credit Card Bills Were Used in NY Court to Get Her to Testify Against Trump

Ivanka Trump received a subpoena to testify for her father, Donald Trump's ongoing New York civil fraud lawsuit. The former political advisor is fiercely defending herself against being made to testify against her siblings and father, meanwhile, in a court document on Thursday afternoon, New York Attorney General Letitia James utilized Ivanka's credit card bills as leverage against her.

As per Newsweek, Ivanka was not a defendant in the civil lawsuit, but James presented a legal request that she should be forced to testify in the trial. "Ms. Trump remains under the control of the Trump Organization, including through her ongoing and substantial business ties to the organization. Ms. Trump reappointed herself to a participating member of several Trump Organization entities following her departure from government," James wrote. 

James claimed that Ivanka just "disclaims any connection" when questioned about her relationship with the Trump Organization and that her attempts to disassociate herself from her father's company have "no legal weight." "She does not seem to be averse to her involvement in the family business when it comes to owning and collecting proceeds from the OPO sale, the Trump Organization purchasing insurance for her and her companies, managing her household staff and credit card bills, renting her apartment or even paying her legal fees in this action," the attorney general wrote.

James disagreed with Trump's daughter's lawyers as well, claiming that a subpoena was not properly served to her. "As an initial matter, Ms. Trump tries to distinguish whether the subpoena had been served on her individually or as an officer of the entities addressed beneath her name in the subpoena. All roads here lead to Rome; regardless of how the subpoenas are parsed, sufficient service was effected to compel Ms. Trump's testimony, whether individually or as an officer or agent of the corporate entities," James wrote. 

The cost of Ivanka's penthouse was scrutinized during the trial after Donald Bender, a longtime accountant for Donald Trump's companies and a partner at Mazars USA, testified that the price offered to Ivanka Trump to purchase the Trump Park Avenue penthouse in Manhattan differed from the valuation provided for it. According to James' lawsuit, the apartment was appraised by the Trump Organization at $20.8 million, while Trump's daughter was offered an option price of $8.5 million.

As per Business Insider, Ivanka's legal team has squashed the New York Attorney General's Office subpoena calling it "overly broad." According to her attorney, Bennet J. Moskowitz, copies of the subpoena were sent to three of her corporate addresses but not to her home address. 

"Each of these three subpoenas listed Ms. Trump's name only in the 'to' line above the LLCs' names and the names and addresses of their registered agents," Moskowitz wrote. "The body of the Subpoenas requested a 'personal appearance' 'to give testimony' at trial but did not identify any specific employee, officer, or director that the NYAG wanted to appear," he stated. When Ivanka moved to Washington in early 2017, she ended all of her responsibilities with the Trump Organization, according to a state appellate panel. As a result, the AG's allegations against her were prohibited by the statute of limitations.

Up until 2016, Ivanka served as the executive vice president for development and acquisitions at Trump Organization. In that capacity, she mediated and obtained finance worth hundreds of millions of dollars for Trump's holdings, which included the Trump National Doral golf course in Miami, the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago, and the Old Post Office hotel project in Washington, DC.

Editor's note: This article was originally published on October 27, 2023. It has since been updated.