OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Lara Trump took time on Monday to address rumors of a growing rift among former President Donald Trump’s children and extended family.
Lara, who is married to Eric Trump, told the UK’s Daily Mail in an exclusive interview that Ivanka Trump choosing a different attorney was not a sign of a growing divide among the family. That referred to a decision made by Donald Trump’s eldest daughter to request a separate lawyer from her brothers to defend herself against charges brought by the New York state attorney general.
In September, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit alleging that the former president, “along with his three oldest children, Don Jr., Eric, and Ivanka, inflated Trump Organization and related companies’ property values in order to obtain cheaper loans,” the Western Journal noted.
The lawsuit seeks $250 million in damages.
The Western Journal further reported:
Forbes reported that last fall Don Jr. and Eric hired attorneys Clifford Robert and Michael Farina to represent them in the case and soon thereafter the lawyers informed the court they would be representing Ivanka, as well.
However, on March 6, another attorney representing Ivanka wrote to the judge asking him to delay the trial.
“The complaint does not contain a single allegation that Ms. Trump directly or indirectly created, prepared, reviewed, or certified any of her father’s financial statements. The complaint affirmatively alleges that other individuals were responsible for those tasks,” the letter said, indicating that Ivanka’s defense would likely be different from that of her other family members.
“Then last week, Bennet Moskowitz informed the court that he was replacing Ivanka’s counsel in the case and that Robert and Farina would no longer be involved in her defense,” The Western Journal added.
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Regarding Ivanka’s decision, Lara told the Daily Mail: “I think people are trying to make that a bigger deal than it really is.”
“It’s not common to have to go through all this stuff that my husband and his siblings go through,” she noted further. “They’ve had a series of different attorneys throughout this entire process and it just so happened that Ivanka felt closer to one, gravitated towards that [one].”
“She [may have] said, ‘I’m going to have this person directly for me,’ but [the attorneys] all work as a team. I think that got lost in the story,” Lara Trump added.
The UK outlet then asked if Lara and Ivanka socialize at all since both live in southeast Florida, to which she responded: “We do.”
Lara Trump is actively involved in the former president’s current 2024 presidential campaign, but Ivanka Trump has made it clear she won’t be.
Though she has said she does not want to be a part of her father’s 2024 campaign or subsequent administration should he win a second term, it is evident that she still cares deeply for her father.
According to a report in early April, Ivanka made a low-profile trip to see her father at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Sunday, two days before he was arraigned on criminal charges in a Manhattan courtroom the following Tuesday.
“The former first daughter saw him on Sunday at his Palm Beach, Fla., fiefdom ahead of his arraignment on Tuesday in New York,” noted Page Six, the gossip column.
Though no photos were released to document the visit, the outlet noted the trip was seen as “a seeming display of support for him privately — after she’d previously distanced herself from his latest White House campaign.”
Ivanka’s avoidance of her father’s court appearance on Tuesday was also noted by several other media outlets, with New York magazine pointing out that she was among the “conspicuously absent” Trump family members.
But, the New York Post reported that Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, are supporting Trump privately as family members.
