Ivanka Trump has split from the rest of her family in the Trump family fraud lawsuit brought forth in New York.
Former President Donald Trump and his three eldest children, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump, were all included in the $250 million civil fraud lawsuit that New York Attorney General Letitia James filed last fall. The lawsuit alleges that the Trump Organization had engaged in fraudulent practices and as such repayment was needed. As part of the lawsuit, James also called for the four Trump family members to completely be removed from their roles in the family business and to be blocked from having any leadership roles in the state of New York.
Originally the Trump children all hired Clifford Robert and Michael Farina for their legal representation, however, Ivanka Trump has also hired her own legal team based in Washington, D.C. More recently, Ivanka Trump completely broke off from having the same representation as her family, and she has now hired attorney Bennet Moskowitz last week for her defense.
Last week Moskowitz informed the court of the change in Ivanka’s Trump legal defense and representation.
Former federal prosecutor and former elected state attorney Michael McAuliffe, has argued that this is not an unheard of move and that she most “likely decided” that she needed to hire legal representation that would only be concerned with her legal interests. He further added that this is quite common in cases with multiple defendants who all belong to the same family.
However, McAuliffe has noted that the time of the change in representation is interesting as the lawsuit is currently nearing the end of the discovery period, with a trial expected to start in October. As he argues by now the evidence is “largely identified and developed.”
McAuliffe further added that Ivanka Trump may just be preparing for the trial in the fall and wants to have established a separate advocate who will be able to “point out the disparity in the evidence against the various defendants.”
