Well, they’re finally doing it — Donald Trump and two of his adult children, including Ivanka and Donald Jr., have agreed to testify as part of the civil investigation New York state Attorney General Letitia James is conducting into the Trump family business.
The agreements come after repeatedly failed attempts to stop the testimony from happening, and they’re accompanied by a stipulation, per ABC: the Trumps will be sitting for testimony beginning July 15 and concluding by the following week “unless the state’s highest court intervenes.” But there’s not any apparent sign that the Trumps’ fortunes will suddenly turn around. Last month, a four-judge panel in the appellate division of New York’s trial court ruled the Trumps must testify, upholding conclusions to that effect from lower-level New York Judge Arthur Engoron.
Arguments against moving forward with the testimony hinged in part on the possibility of info gleaned from the process to support a criminal investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office into the Trump business, but the appeals panel handling this matter concluded that the “existence of a criminal investigation does not preclude civil discovery of related facts, at which a party may exercise the privilege against self-incrimination,” as they put it. James’s probe hinges on the apparent deceptive valuations from the Trump company for various assets; these seemingly essentially falsified valuations would have been set to provide the Trump company with various unearned financial perks, like tax breaks.
In one example, the values of conservation easements at Trump properties in California and New York were apparently overstated, which would’ve allowed the Trump Organization to win tax benefits it hadn’t earned. As an April press release from James’s office explained, “evidence indicates that the Trump Organization submitted fraudulent or misleading valuations of conservation easements to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), specifically related to Seven Springs (in Westchester County, NY) and Trump National Golf Club, Los Angeles (in Los Angeles County, CA).” Tax deductions were obtained with those apparently fraudulent or misleading valuations.
The New York investigation is not the only ongoing — and serious — probe implicating Trump. In Georgia, a special grand jury recently kicked off its official work in connection with a criminal investigation by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis into various attempts by then-President Donald Trump and his allies to discredit and undo Biden’s win in the state. Trump supported challengers to Republican officials in Georgia, including Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who resisted going along with Trump’s wishes for the state — and Kemp and Raffensperger both recently won the GOP primaries for their current positions. Separately, Donald, Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric all recently agreed to be questioned under oath for up to seven hours apiece amid a class-action lawsuit hinging on their years of public support for a multi-level marketing company called ACN Opportunity LLC. Trump’s been accused of hiding the compensation he received for backing certain ACN initiatives.
