It may now be too late for Ivanka Trump to distance herself from her family’s issues, despite recent efforts, according to one legal analyst on Saturday.
Ivanka Trump, the daughter of former President Donald Trump, has made consistent efforts to distance herself from her father’s political career since his term in office ended, instead opting to focus on her business career. Alongside her husband, Jared Kushner, she gave testimony to the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot and, more recently, was absent from her father’s announcement of his 2024 reelection bid this past November.
Ivanka Trump has also been attempting to distance herself from the legal woes mounting against her family. She is currently named as a defendant in New York State Attorney General Letitia James’s $250 million fraud case against the Trump Organization, alongside her brothers, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., and other executives at the company. The complaint alleges that the Trump Organization misrepresented the values of certain properties on official records to reap financial gain.
Recently, the former president’s daughter moved to dismiss the services of lawyers representing her brothers and brought in her own legal team. The new lawyers, on March 6, wrote to the judge overseeing the case, asking for a delay of the trial and arguing that their client was not directly involved in the wrongdoing alleged by James.
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“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 letter read. “The complaint affirmatively alleges that other individuals were responsible for those tasks.”
Speaking with Insider for a piece published on Saturday, legal analyst and attorney Andrew Lieb said that while Ivanka Trump’s attempts to move away from her family make sense, they are also potentially too late and suggested that there might be infighting amongst the family.
“It’s a little late in the game for her to be rebranding, although it makes a lot of sense from a legal perspective,” Lieb said. “Having all of these people—when it comes to Trump, Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka—with the same lawyer, there could end up being conflict of interest issues. I think there’s probably something going on here where there’s infighting because I find that families all love each other until they’re all liable for $250 million.”
Lieb further suggested on Saturday that Ivanka Trump’s recent moves were motivated by the impact her father’s political career has had on her various business dealings and her personal life.
Newsweek reached out to Ivanka Trump’s lawyers via email for comment.