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Ex-President Donald Trump with his children Ivanka and Donald Junior (archive)
Photo: MANDEL NGAN / AFP
Ex-President Donald Trump and two of his children are contesting a subpoena in a lawsuit over potentially fraudulent business practices.
The ex-president and his children Ivanka and Donald Jr. are taking legal action against being asked to answer questions under oath in the civil trial in New York, court documents Monday showed.
This move was expected.
Lawyers argue the subpoena violates the Trumps' rights as the New York City Attorney's Office is simultaneously investigating Trump's corporate empire.
"No one is above the law"
A judge in New York ruled in mid-February that the 75-year-old Republican and his two children must face an interrogation within 21 days.
Lawyers for the Trump family had tried to prevent this, arguing that Attorney General Letitia James, who is a member of the Democratic Party, was biased towards the former White House chief.
James had described the subpoena as for justice two weeks ago: "No one is above the law."
The Attorney General of New York State opened a civil investigation into the Trump Organization in 2019 for possible financial crimes.
She investigates the suspicion that the family holding company artificially inflated the value of real estate when it wanted to obtain loans from banks, and in other cases underestimated it in order to save on taxes or insurance premiums.
In January, James said he had collected evidence of fraudulent financial practices.
"In our investigation, we uncovered significant evidence suggesting that Donald J. Trump and the Trump Organization mispriced numerous assets." The assets were misrepresented to financial institutions in order to gain "a variety of economic benefits." provide things like insurance coverage or tax deductions, James had explained.
The Trump Organization denies that.
James wants to question the Trumps as part of their investigation, they have been fighting back for months.
It is still unclear how dangerous the investigation could be for Trump.
The 75-year-old has repeatedly raised a possible re-election for the presidency in 2024.
The right-wing populist still enjoys great respect among his supporters.
He is still the strongman in his Republican Party, even though some party leaders such as Mike Pence and Mitch McConnell have recently distanced themselves from Trump.
mrc/dpa