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New York Attorney General Letitia James has issued subpoenas for Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump as part of a probe into the Trump Organization’s business practices, the Associated Press reported.
The subpoenas requested testimony from Ivanka and Donald Jr. as well as documents “in connection with an investigation into the valuation of properties owned or controlled by Donald J. Trump or the Trump Organization, or any matter which the Attorney General deems pertinent thereto,” according to a court brief released to the public on Monday.
Lawyers for the Trumps filed court documents Monday evening seeking to block the subpoenas, calling them “an unprecedented and unconstitutional maneuver.”
For two years, James has been investigating whether Trump’s family business was not honest with banks and tax agents about the real value of the firm’s assets. The probe seeks to discover if the values were inflated to receive more favorable loan guarantees, or to save on taxes.
In December, it was reported that James was seeking to get the former president to testify. But the Monday release of the court document was the first public indication that the probe investigation was also attempting to get additional information from Ivanka and Donald Jr.
Eric Trump, the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, was already questioned by the attorney general’s office in October 2020.
In December, Trump sued James, attempting to block the investigation and accusing the New York attorney general of using her investigatory powers to “target her political adversaries and advance her career.” James responded by calling the lawsuit a “collateral attack” on the investigation.
“To be clear, neither Mr. Trump nor the Trump Organization gets to dictate if and where they will answer for their actions. Our investigation will continue undeterred because no one is above the law, not even someone with the name Trump,” she said in a statement at that time.
James is also involved in a separate criminal investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office into the Trump Organization’s business practices that have led to tax fraud charges against former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg last July.
Weisselberg has denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty.
