- A judge ruled Thursday that Trump must sit for a deposition in New York AG Tish James' civil inquiry.
- Ivanka and
Donald Trump Jr. must also comply with subpoenas for testimony, the judge said.
A Manhattan judge on Thursday ruled that former President Donald Trump must sit for a deposition and provide personal business documents in New York attorney general
Two of the former president's adult children, Ivanka and Donald Jr., must also comply with James' subpoenas for their testimony, the judge ruled. He ordered the three of them to sit for depositions within 21 days.
"Today, justice prevailed," James said in a statement.
"Donald J. Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., and Ivanka Trump have been ordered by the court to comply with our lawful investigation into Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization's financial dealings," she said.
"No one will be permitted to stand in the way of the pursuit of justice, no matter how powerful they are. No one is above the
Ron Fischetti, an attorney for Trump, vowed a speedy appeal of the ruling.
"We believe that we have a very, very strong argument in this case," he told Insider. "We will be able to prove that Letitia James can't be an attorney general taking a civil deposition and a district attorney who can use that deposition in a criminal case at the same time."
Lawyers for the Trump family argued in court earlier Thursday that their clients should not have to comply with James' civil probe subpoenas for that very reason: potential criminal liability.
They argued that anything they said in a deposition could be used in a criminal probe that James is also running in tandem with an investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney's office, where a grand jury is currently hearing evidence.
But state Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron said that argument "overlooks the salient fact that they have an absolute right to refuse to answer questions that they claim may incriminate them."
In other words, the judge was acknowledging the Trumps can plead the Fifth Amendment.
"Indeed, respondent Eric Trump invoked the right against self-incrimination more than 500 times during his one-day deposition arising out of the instant proceeding," Engoron wrote in his ruling.
The decision followed a contentious hearing Thursday morning, during which lawyers for James and Trump squared off over whether the former president and two of his adult children should have to comply with James' subpoenas.
Alan Futerfas, who represents the Trump Organization, and Alina Habba, who represents Donald Trump personally, also argued that if investigators want Trump's testimony, they should subpoena him to testify before the DA's grand jury.
"They want to ask him questions under oath, fine," Fischetti argued before Engoron.
"Put him in a grand jury," where he would automatically get immunity from criminal prosecution for any misdeeds he described. There is no such immunity protection in a civil deposition, the lawyers noted.
But Engoron rejected that argument.
"The target of a hybrid civil/criminal investigation cannot use the Fifth Amendment as both sword and a shield; a shield against questions and a sword against the investigation itself," he wrote.
"When they are deposed, the New Trump Respondents will have the right to refuse to answer any questions that they claim might incriminate them, and that refusal may not be commented on or used against them in a criminal prosecution."
The judge said the investigation was perfectly legitimate
Trump has also argued repeatedly, in state and federal court filings and even on Twitter, that James should recuse herself — or her probe should it be halted entirely — due to the politically-motivated "bias" she showed during her 2018 campaign to be New York's top law enforcement officer.
He filed a lawsuit in December accusing James of trying to "harass" him with investigations.
While on the campaign trail, James called Trump an "illegitimate president" and warned that he should be "scared" of her, among other barbs.
In federal court, Habba has asked another judge to halt the AG investigation, alleging that it's been tainted by
Engoron's decision now "puts Trump between a rock and a hard spot," former New York Attorney General Dennis Vacco told Insider Thursday, calling the ruling "surprising.
Anything Trump says in the civil deposition can later be used against him criminally, noted Vacco, who served as attorney general from 1995 to 1998 and is currently a partner at the firm Lippes Mathias.
But if he pleads the Fifth and says nothing, that, too, can cause him problems.
"A civil judge or jury can use his taking the Fifth Amendment over and over against him," should James file a civil suit against him, Vacco said.
In court papers filed last month, James' office said that her office has "uncovered substantial evidence establishing numerous misrepresentations in Mr. Trump's financial statements provided to banks, insurers and the Internal Revenue Service."
Engoron on Thursday chided some of James' statements as "overtly aggressive" but said that the documents provided ample basis for the legitimacy of the investigation.
Earlier this week, Trump's longtime accounting firm, Mazars USA, sent a letter to the Trump Organization saying that ten years of Trump's statements of financial condition "should no longer be relied upon" in light of James' findings and an internal investigation by the firm.
"While we have not concluded that the various financial statements, as a whole, contain material discrepancies, based upon the totality of the circumstances, we believe our advice to you to no longer rely upon those financial statements is appropriate," the firm said in its letter to the Trump Organization.
Mazars went on to say that because of its decision regarding Trump's statements as well as "the totality of the circumstances," it will no longer be able to "provide any new work product to the Trump Organization."
More than a dozen current and former Trump Organization executives have complied with James' subpoenas and given testimony. But James has said that many of them were less than helpful on the stand, including Eric Trump and the Trump Organization's CFO Allen Weisselberg, who was indicted in the Manhattan DA's investigation last year along with the Trump Organization.