Ivanka Trump ordered to testify in father’s fraud trial

NEW YORK: The New York judge presiding over Donald Trump´s civil fraud trial ordered his daughter Ivanka on Friday to testify in the case.

Ivanka Trump, 41, was initially named in the lawsuit against Trump and his two eldest sons brought by New York´s attorney general but was eventually dropped as a defendant.

Trump and his sons Don Jr and Eric are accused of inflating the value of the real estate of the Trump Organisation for years to obtain more favorable bank loans and insurance terms. Judge Arthur Engoron dismissed an attempt by Trump´s attorneys to quash a subpoena issued to Ivanka Trump by Attorney General Letitia James but gave her until November 1 to appeal the decision.

Ivanka Trump served as a senior advisor to her father, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, while he was in the White House but has kept a low profile since he left office.

She abandoned her roles in the Trump Organization in January 2017, when her father became president and she and her husband, Jared Kushner, both took up posts in his administration. Prior to that, Ivanka Trump was an executive vice president in the Trump Organisation and was notably in close contact with one of the group´s biggest lenders, Deutsche Bank, according to the attorney general´s office.

The 77-year-old Trump and his sons are also expected to testify at some point during the trial being held in Manhattan. The former president does not risk going to jail, but James is seeking $250 million in penalties and the removal of Trump and his sons from management of the family real estate empire.

Trump has repeatedly denounced the trial as a Democratic witch hunt intended to derail his 2024 White House bid.