New York attorney general wants to interrogate Donald Trump's children

New York State Attorney General's office, who last month summoned 45th President Donald Trump to court as part of a civil investigation into his business practices, are also trying to interrogate two of his adult children as part of their investigation, reports The New York Times.

The involvement of the children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, was revealed in court documents filed on January 3. Then the Trump Organization tried to prevent the attorneys of the Attorney General of New York Laetitia James to the interrogation of Trump and his children.

According to one of the documents, the summons for the former president and his two children were handed over on December 1. Eric Trump, another Trump son, was interrogated by prosecutors in October 2020.

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The Attorney General's attempt to interrogate Trump under oath went public in December 2021. But it was not previously known that prosecutors also wanted to interrogate Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump.

Prosecutors inspect Trump's properties

A civil investigation into James is investigating whether Trump fraudulently inflated the value of his assets to secure bank loans, downplaying them elsewhere to reduce his tax bill.

James's office has filed a series of documents in court as part of her due diligence on many of the Trump Organization properties. These include the Seven Springs estate in Westchester County and the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago.

If her lawyers find evidence of wrongdoing, the office can file a lawsuit. Since the investigation is civil, James cannot open a criminal investigation.

But James's office is also involved in a separate criminal investigation, which is now led by the district attorney. Manhattan Alvin Bragg, sworn in on January 1. Previous District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., who oversaw the investigation for over three years, stepped down at the end of the year.

James tried to obtain information for a criminal investigation

Trump Organization lawyers and family filed a motion on January 3 to block the interrogation. They argued that James had attempted to inappropriately circumvent the grand jury process in a criminal investigation by interrogating Trump family members under oath as part of a civil investigation.

In this way, lawyers argued, James would be able to obtain information valuable for a criminal investigation from family members without the need to grant them the immunity from prosecution that New York law would require if they testified before a grand jury.

Trump's lawyer Ronald P. Fischetti said James has politicized her role as attorney general.

Alan S. Futerface, a lawyer representing Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, called the attorney general's actions "unprecedented." He stated that "the subpoenas violate the grand jury rights that we all have."

Asked about the argument in the petition, Bruce Greene, who runs the Center for Legal Ethics at Fordham University, said Trump family members could still claim their right not to self-incriminate if James' office gets the right to ask them questions.

Refusing to testify will hurt the Trump family

Green said the family's lawyers will have to show, not just claim, that James was abusing civil proceedings to gather evidence for a criminal case.

Refusing to testify can hurt the family Trump during a civil investigation. Judges and juries in civil cases are allowed to take such refusals into account. But plaintiffs in criminal cases are prohibited from using the silence of the defendants against them.

Trump's three oldest children have long been deeply involved in their father's company, the Trump Organization. Each of them joined the company shortly after graduating from college.

When Trump became president in 2017, he turned over the business to Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, as well as longtime CFO Allen H. Weisselberg. Ivanka Trump takes over an office in the West Wing.

Weisselberg and the Trump Organization were indicted in July as part of a criminal investigation. Vance's attorney's office accused him of using a tax evasion scheme. Under this scheme, managers received compensation in the form of informal benefits. Weisselberg's lawyers said he would challenge the charges in court.

Trump's lawyers filed a lawsuit against James last month. This was an attempt to stop her civil investigation and prevent her from participating in the criminal investigation. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Albany, alleged that James violated Trump's political rights. It was also said that her actions were "guided solely by political hostility."