Dem
51
GOP
49
Sometimes the courts take forever and a day to do anything, but sometimes they move faster than a speeding bullet. On Thursday, Ivanka Trump's attempts to appeal her testimony in the NY civil case against her father and her older brothers were dashed when her appeal was rejected. She will probably have to testify this week. It will be quite a week for the Family Trump.
We mentioned Ivanka's loss on Friday, but it's worth taking a closer look. Her argument was "There is school this week so I have to take care of my children." The judge and the appeals court found this patently absurd for so many reasons, including:
The fact that she was so obviously lying is probably why the appeals court moved so fast.
Now Ivanka has a real problem. She was executive vice president of the Trump Organization and should have known what was going on. She probably did. Now what? Donald Trump's niece, Mary Trump, thinks Ivanka is not prepared to commit perjury for her father and will throw him under the bus. We're not so sure. She has the best lawyers money can buy and, unlike her father, is quite capable of listening to them and remembering what they tell her. One obvious ploy is to say her job in the company didn't involve the financial side at all. She could say her main responsibility was PR and boosting the Trump brand. Daddy was not the kind of guy who made detailed organizational charts and made sure everyone was doing exactly the work their job required, no more and no less. Consequently, if she testifies that she knows nothing about the financial stuff and the accountants handled that, it would probably be hard to convict her of perjury, even if Daddy bragged to her about how he was fleecing everyone.
Mary Trump does have a point, though. If the lawyers for New York State know that she did know about the finances—for example, if they have her signature on financial documents—if forced to choose, she would probably avoid perjury and throw dad and her brothers under the bus. The main reason is that she is independently wealthy due to the $2 billion the Saudi investment fund gave Jared to manage. He could probably charge them a 1.5% annual management fee and not be completely out of line with other top money managers. On $2 billion, this is an income of $30 million a year.
In contrast, Donald Jr. and Eric are closely tied to Trump's company. They don't have large independent income streams. If the company goes under, they go under. They have a great incentive to lie or try to obfuscate. Ivanka doesn't have that incentive since her finances are not tied to the company's, other than a possible inheritance someday. But she doesn't need the inheritance in 5-10 years. Her future is already secure thanks to the Saudi money, not to mention the money she earned before her father's presidency thanks to her fashion line. (V)