This new change to Ivanka Trump’s trial testimony isn’t good news for Donald Trump
Last week it was determined that Donald Trump’s three oldest kids would testify in the New York civil fraud case this week, and then Trump would testify next Monday. But now a slight change has been made to the schedule, and it’s not good news for Trump.
Ivanka Trump will no longer testify this week, and will instead testify next Wednesday. In other words she’ll be testifying after her father. So if Donald Trump was planning to just wait to see how Ivanka addressed certain matters and then parrot those same answers himself, now he won’t be able to do that. Donald will have to commit himself to certain answers under oath, without knowing what Ivanka will then say during her testimony.
This makes sense. While Donald Trump and his two sons are defendants in this trial, Ivanka Trump is not a defendant and is instead a witness for the prosecution. It’s not that she wants to be testifying, it’s just that when witnesses are subpoenaed by a jury to testify, they don’t have any say in the matter.
It’s also important to remember that because the courts have already excluded Ivanka Trump as a possible defendant in this trial due to the statute of limitations, there is no Fifth Amendment for her to hide behind. Nor can she just say “I don’t recall” to every question, which would be obstruction. Nor can she lie, which would be perjury. She simply has to give cooperative testimony. That’s the way it works.
