How many eighth-graders would like to claim “undue” hardship in trying to get out of being somewhere they don’t want to be “in the middle of a school week.”
Well, Ivanka Trump tried to do just that. Through her attorney, she sought to avoid testifying in the financial fraud trial of the Trump Organization, her father, former President Donald Trump, two older brothers, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and others.
New York Attorney General Letitia James called the request a “drastic” move that “would upend an ongoing trial.”
Judge Not Buying Ivanka's Excuses
In her lawsuit, James alleges that the former president overstated his wealth in financial statements to get more favorable terms on loans and deals.
Ivanka Trump’s lawyer also argued that the civil court has no jurisdiction to compel her testimony because she hasn’t lived or worked in New York since 2017.
But Judge Arthur Engoron previously pointed to documents saying Ivanka Trump had business ties and property in Manhattan.
“Ms. Trump has availed herself of the privilege of doing business in New York,” Engoron wrote in a filing last week.
To Court She Will Go
Ivanka Trump chose to go the more familiar route.
After a New York appeals court rejected her motion to stay the testimony, she dropped her full appeal.
Ivanka Trump is scheduled to testify Nov. 8.
She had worked at the Trump Organization as executive vice president for development and acquisitions until early January 2017, when she took a position as senior White House adviser to her then-president father.
She was originally named as a defendant in James’ lawsuit but was dismissed after a state appeals court ruled the statute of limitations barred the claims against her.