Speaking recently on MSNBC with host Alex Witt, Sarah Matthews — a former communications official in the Trump White House — predicted that imminent trial testimony from Ivanka Trump in a New York case alleging business fraud by her family could be damaging for her family members.
Though Matthews and another guest on the broadcast, former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti, predicted that she’d be generally careful in her words as they could apply to both herself and those members of her family, Matthews argued that concerns for her own image would win, leaving the other Trumps vulnerable.
“I think that she is going to be very concerned with how she’s coming across with her testimony, and it’s going to be very guarded, and so that’s going to be probably a bigger factor than trying to protect her family,” Matthews told the network.
Ivanka isn’t the only Trump family member currently on track to testify. Also scheduled to make courtroom appearances in coming days are Donald Jr., Eric, and the former president himself, who will be the last on the stand in the current schedule, which puts him there November 6. That’s the start of next week, and his adult children drawn into the case, which originates with state Attorney General Letitia James, are scheduled to testify across the final three days of this workweek.
Ivanka, who was removed as an actual target of the case by a New York court on statute of limitations concerns, recently lost a last-ditch effort to avert showing up for questioning, though she retained the brief opportunity to appeal that decision.
James’ case alleges a pattern of misrepresenting the value of assets. As for Ivanka, though she made a show of leaving controlling roles at the Trump family business when she joined the White House, she has continued drawing large sums in income from Trump-branded entities. And earlier, she held a stake in the Trump hotel operation in Washington, D.C., that attracted so much scrutiny.
Watch below, as originally flagged by Raw Story:
