Former first daughter Ivanka Trump has stopped involving the lawyers defending her in a fraud case against New York Attorney General Letitia James — separating herself from the lawyers representing her brothers Eric and Don Jr. represent in the case.
James filed a lawsuit against her father, former President Donald Trump, alleging that he, his three oldest children, his real estate company, and his top executives improperly inflated property values to get cheaper loans.
She is seeking $250 million — asking a judge to “permanently” ban Trump and his adult children from doing business in the state.
Trump and his children have denied the claims, and just a week after the lawsuit was filed, Eric and Don Jr. paperwork stating that they hired Clifford Robert and Michael Farina of Robert & Robert to represent them.
Ivanka Trump, 41, has fired the lawyers who represented her in a fraud case against New York Attorney General Letitia James
That was the firm that Ivanka also used. But, as newly filed court documents show, Ivanka has now split with Robert and Farina, Forbes reported. They have previously represented Jeffrey Epstein’s estate.
The attorneys had previously told the court that they would also be representing Ivanka, as her local counsel and in conjunction with two Washington DC-based attorneys Ivanka had hired independently from her brothers, Reid Figel and Michael Kellogg, from Kellogg Hansen.
The former president’s daughter is now represented by Bennet Moskowitz of the Troutman Pepper firm Hamilton Sanders, according to a lawsuit.
His office did not immediately call back for comment.
Ivanka was an Executive Vice President at the Trump Organization and featured prominently on the TV show “The Apprentice.” She brought her father to Washington when he won the White House, where she served as an unpaid senior adviser with her husband, Jared Kushner.
James accused Trump of “numerous acts of fraud” when she filed a civil suit last year following a three-year investigation.
New York AG Letitia James has sued former President Donald Trump and his adult children for $250 million for fraud
For a time, Ivanka Trump shared lawyers with Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, both Trump Organization executives, on the case
donald trump jr. and Eric Trump, right, stayed on as Trump Organization executives when Ivanka and Jared Kushner joined the White House staff
She accused Trump and his three adult children of inflating real estate assets well beyond their true valuations when seeking loans to expand his real estate empire.
“Pretending you have money you don’t have doesn’t come down to the ‘art of bargaining. It’s the art of stealing,'” she said.
A signal in the apparent split of legal strategy occurred when Ivanka asked Judge Arthur Engeron for a stay.
The letter sought to establish that she had no role in approving financial statements that James’ office has characterized as bait and switch.
“The complaint does not contain any allegation that Mrs. Trump directly or indirectly prepared, prepared, reviewed or certified her father’s financial statements. The complaint affirmatively alleges that other individuals were responsible for those duties,” the letter said.
“Similarly, as Mrs. Trump argued in her motion to dismiss — and which the OAG did not contest — there is no allegation that Mrs. Trump ever misrepresented her father’s statements about anyone’s financial condition,” the letter continues.
Her attorneys wrote that the complaint “contains no allegation that Ms. Trump participated in the preparation of those financial statements, was aware of the valuation methods used to value those assets, or had any knowledge of the alleged inaccuracies in the stated assets of her father. ‘
Nevertheless, at least one of James’ allegations relates to a property that Ivanka occupied.
According to a filing from James, Ivanka’s Park Avenue apartment was publicly worth $25 million, but she retained an option to purchase it for $8 million.
Eric and Donald Trump Jr. each made statements under a judge’s order. In his own statement, Eric Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment rights more than 500 times.
Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly called the case a “witch hunt” against him.
If there were signs of possible future family feuds in court, Ivanka indicated that she was still living her best life on Instagram, where she posted new images to her Instagram account.
They had her play polo in Wellington, Florida to a cheering crowd.