Donald Trump and his children have been summoned by Donald Jr. and Ivanka in a New York investigation, Reuters reported

By Jonathan Stempel and Karen Freifeld

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Two of Donald Trump Jr.’s adult children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump is demanding that she testify in a civil investigation into the former U.S. president’s business practices and the company of the same name.

Citations to Attorney General Letitia James’ office were filed Monday in a New York state court in Manhattan.

Donald Trump has also received a subpoena, and the Trump family intends to ask the judge who oversaw the investigation-related dispute to prevent James’s lawyers from obtaining their testimony, according to the dossier.

James’s citations reflect a nearly three-year escalation of the investigation into the declining inflated values ​​of his real estate shares that the Trump organization fraudulently inflated to obtain bank loans, and reduced their values ​​to lower tax bills.

Alina Habba, an emailed by Donald Trump’s lawyer, accused the Democrat of “arming his office” with a “political witch hunt” that violates the constitutional rights of the former President of the Republic.

“His actions are a threat to our democracy and I intend to hold him accountable to the fullest extent possible,” Habba said in response to a request from the Trump Organization.

Lawyers for Trump’s children did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Eric Trump, another adult son of Donald Trump, was questioned by James’s office in October 2020.

Donald Trump gave it to his adult sons and longtime Allen Weisselberg, the company’s former chief financial officer, when the Trump Institution became president in 2017.

Ivanka Trump also worked at the Trump Organization before serving as a senior adviser to the White House.

CRIMINAL LIST TAKEN

James’s probe has focused on New York’s Seven Springs Estate in Westchester County, a Manhattan downtown office building, the Trump National Golf Club in Los Angeles, and the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago.

It is related to a criminal investigation by the Manhattan Attorney’s Office, which James introduced last May with the Trump Organization’s business practices.

Weisselberg and the company pleaded not guilty in July last year to an investigation into what a prosecutor called a “widespread and daring” tax fraud in which the company’s executives were given “regular books” for 15 years.

The probe is overseen by Alvin Bragg, who was sworn in as a deputy attorney for Democrat Cyrus Vance on Saturday, led the office for 12 years and began his investigation in 2018.

Bragg told CNN last month that he intended to be personally involved in the criminal investigation, and that he wanted his main attorneys in the case to continue.

Last month, Trump sued James in a federal state court in Albany to stop his civil investigation for “harassing, intimidating and retaliating against a private citizen he considers a political opponent.”

Donald Trump and his adult children have not been charged with felony criminal mischief, and James cannot file a criminal complaint because of his civil investigation.