Ivanka Thinks Testifying on a School Night Is an ‘Undue Hardship’
Being Ivanka Trump is super hard. Her new neighbors in Florida said mean things about her behind her back just worked in her father’s wannabe authoritarian administration for four years. She really doesn’t want to testify in the civil fraud suit against the Trump Organization, where she worked for about a decade, but a mean judge said she has to. And when Ivanka’s team complained that she shouldn’t have to testify “in the middle of the school week,” a New York appeals court said she’d just have to shell out for a babysitter.
Ivanka’s father, Donald Trump, and brothers, Don Jr. and Eric, are defendants in the suit, but she was dismissed from the case in June, as her work with the Trump Organization was deemed outside the statute of limitations. Last week Judge Arthur Engoron rejected claims from Ivanka’s legal team that New York Attorney General Letitia James does not have the jurisdiction to compel the former First Daughter to testify, as she now lives in Florida. “Ms. Trump has clearly availed herself of the privilege of doing business in New York,” Engoron said.
Engoron also denied a follow-up request from a Trump attorney to let Ivanka sit for a deposition in Florida, rather than testifying before the court in New York. “We want her here in person,” Engoron said.
Don Jr. and Eric testified this week, and Ivanka is scheduled to appear on Wednesday, November 8. But on Thursday her attorneys made one last-ditch effort to delay, arguing that Engoron’s order — and the entire fraud trial — should be paused until a New York appellate court could hear her appeal.
“Ms. Trump, who resides in Florida with her three minor children, will suffer undue hardship if a stay is denied and she is required to testify at trial in New York in the middle of a school week, in a case she has already been dismissed from, before her appeal is heard,” her attorney argued in an appeal filed Thursday, per CNN.
The request for a stay was quickly denied by the New York appellate court with this brief ruling: “Application for interim stay pending decision on the motion is denied.”
If the court had offered a fuller explanation they might have noted that Ivanka’s kids aren’t babies and toddlers who have never spent a night away from her; they’re 12, 10, and seven. Also, Ivanka definitely has access to both paid and unpaid childcare. “When it’s time for work, Ivanka relies on her trusted nanny — and her extended family for support,” People reported in a 2016 profile. Plus, Ivanka managed to leave the house recently for Kim Kardashian’s birthday party in Beverly Hills. It took place on a Friday — not a school night — but presumably Ivanka commuting cross-country for a social event gave the family some practice for next week’s brief disruption to the family schedule.