While his eldest daughter and former White House adviser has publicly stepped away from politics, Ivanka posted on Instagram after Donald was convicted of 34 felony charges on Thursday, writing: “I love you, Daddy.” Now we hear she has hit the town to support her father amid the money trial fallout.
Donald Trump listened to closing arguments on Tuesday with his three adult children and some of their spouses — the largest gathering of family at the Manhattan courthouse since the former president’s hush-money trial began six weeks ago.
However, the display of familial support also drew attention to those who were conspicuously absent from the family patriarch’s side: his wife and eldest daughter.
With the jury’s verdict just days away, Melania Trump and Ivanka Trump have still yet to join the former president as he defends himself against 34 charges. Jared Kushner, Ivanka’s husband and Trump’s chief adviser during his four years in Washington, also did not travel to 100 Centre Street for the trial.
Meanwhile, Eric Trump has appeared behind his father inside the Manhattan courthouse on several occasions. Although Donald Trump Jr. is recovering from knee surgery, he has also made some visits. On Tuesday, he was joined by Eric’s wife, Lara, and, for the first time, Trump’s youngest daughter, Tiffany, and her husband, Michael Bowles.
During a break in final arguments, Trump’s eldest sons attacked the credibility of the prosecution’s key witness Michael Cohen and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the case against Trump. Trump Jr. also took aim at Robert De Niro, who spoke outside the courtroom on Tuesday on behalf of President Joe Biden’s campaign. Trump Jr. said De Niro “needs to pay attention because it’s been a long time since he made a good movie.”
“We realize this is political persecution,” he said. “It was demonstrated today, by the Biden campaign itself, by holding a rally here.”
What Trump family members did and did not appear to see in New York reflects his approach to unleashing his third bid for the White House.
While Trump’s children have generally not been as involved as they were in his previous campaigns, Eric Trump has attended campaign events and legal proceedings in another case. Trump Jr. has made multiple appearances on the campaign trail and hosts a regular TV show on Rumble where he promotes his father’s policies and interviews some of Trump’s strongest supporters. Lara Trump remains deeply involved in the former president’s political process, and was recently appointed co-chair of the Republican National Committee after former party leader Ronna McDaniel lost confidence in the party’s presumptive nominee.
Melania Trump, however, has not appeared with her husband at a single Trump campaign rally, and rarely joins him in public. A Trump campaign spokeswoman did not respond when asked if she intended to accompany him during the final days of his trial. Sources familiar with the matter said it was not surprising that the former first lady was not present or did not comment on the underlying allegations in the case.
Trump is accused of illegally arranging money to silence porn star Stormy Daniels, who told jurors she had sex with the former president a year after he married Melania Trump. Initial reports of the alleged encounter and subsequent payment became public while Trump was in the White House, embarrassing the then-first lady and putting a strain on their marriage. During the trial, jurors also heard testimony about another alleged mistress, Playboy magazine chief Karen McDougal, who publicly claimed her eight-month affair with Trump interfered with Melania Trump’s pregnancy with their son Barron.
Ivanka Trump’s absence from the Manhattan trial is not a surprise to many close to the former president, as she and Kushner publicly distanced themselves from Trump’s recent presidential campaign. A source close to the campaign did not rule out the couple appearing together before the verdict is released. The two served as senior advisers during his presidency, but Ivanka Trump announced she would not participate in the 2024 campaign, citing a desire to focus on her family.
“I love my father very much,” she said. “This time, I want to prioritize my young children and the private life we’ve built as a family, I have no plans to get involved in politics.”
A source in Trump’s circle noted that Ivanka had particular concerns about her children’s awareness of the intense spotlight from their famous grandfather.
“When (Ivanka Trump) was in the White House, her children were still at an age where they didn’t know exactly what was going on,” the source said. “His kids are grown now and it’s not the same situation anymore.”
Several sources indicated that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were not cool in some social circles after their time in the White House, as they faced criticism from friends over their father’s policies and behavior while in office. After leaving Washington, the couple left New York and moved to Florida.
Kushner’s parents, Charles and Cyril Kushner, were co-hosts of a fundraiser held in New York by billionaire Howard Lutnick during the trial. Toward the end of his presidency, Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, a real estate developer who served a prison sentence in the mid-2000s after pleading guilty to 16 counts of tax evasion and one count of retaliation against a federal witness — his brother-in-law — and another charge of lying to the Federal Election Commission.
Trump has repeatedly criticized the isolation caused by his presence in court, and has complained privately and publicly that his allies did not make his presence felt inside and outside the courtroom. Republican lawmakers, potential vice presidential contenders, donors and allies responded by gathering in large numbers in the Manhattan courtroom, sparking daily intrigue over who might come to his defense.
Eric Trump became the first family member to attend the trial. He sat behind his father on the ninth day while a witness showed a paper trail allegedly linking Trump to the payment to Daniels.
On Tuesday, Eric Trump apologized to the jury while defending his father.
“This is the biggest waste of time,” he said.
Donald Trump’s impeachment trial for hush money explained
Former President Donald Trump is on trial in Manhattan for his alleged role in a money scheme to silence his alleged mistresses before the 2016 election.
It will be historic. No former US president has ever faced a criminal trial.
That would be obscene. The alleged mistress is a former pornographic film actress and Playboy model.
Although it features a former president who denies any wrongdoing, it may or may not be the trial of the century. Trump still faces three more criminal trials in federal court and Georgia for major crimes such as election interference, conspiracy and misuse of classified documents after he leaves the White House.
All of these trials and the people involved create a complicated legal mess, especially when four criminal cases are added to Trump’s civil liability for defamation, sexual misconduct and business fraud.
Here’s how to get up to speed on this first criminal trial:
What is the general outline of the hush money issue?
The two women who said they had affairs with Trump several years before he ran for president received six-figure sums of money in the months before the 2016 election.
The first woman, Karen McDougal, a Playboy model, received $150,000 from American Media Inc., the parent company of the National Enquirer, for the rights to her story. AMI did nothing immediately regarding the story. It’s a process known as “catch and kill.”
AMI also pressed to arrest and kill a former Trump Tower doorman for a story alleging Trump had an unwed child, but that claim has not been confirmed by any reports. Trump friend David Pecker, who was then CEO of AMI, agreed to make the payments.
The second woman, who was born Stephanie Clifford but made a career in the adult film industry as Stormy Daniels, received $130,000 from former Trump fixer Michael Cohen to sign a nondisclosure agreement about her meetings with Trump. Cohen took out a credit line from his home to make the payments just before the election.
The Trump campaign was particularly concerned about allegations of sexual impropriety in the final days of the 2016 election, as news coverage was dominated by the “Access Hollywood” tape, in which Trump described grabbing women by the genitals.
After the election Trump’s company paid Cohen about the same amount it had paid Daniels.
How did these payments and alleged affairs come to light?
The Wall Street Journal had actually reported on AMI’s arrest and murder plot, and Daniels was in talks to share her story just days before Election Day in 2016. McDougal and Daniels had the same lawyer.
But things didn’t really come to a head until January 2018, when the newspaper reported on payments Cohen made to Daniels.
Were these hush-hush financial payments illegal?
Yes. While hush-hush money payments aren’t necessarily illegal, both Cohen and AMI have admitted they violated laws by making these payments in an effort to hide unflattering information ahead of the 2016 election.
Cohen pleaded guilty to two campaign finance charges in August 2018: making unlawful campaign contributions from AMI to McDougal for his participation in organizing the payments, and making excessive campaign contributions for the payments to Daniels.
Federal authorities did not bring criminal charges against AMI, now known as A360Media, but did admit to making the payments to McDougal. The company paid a $187,500 fine to the Federal Election Commission for its illegal campaign contributions.
What did Trump know about these payments?
Cohen recorded at least one conversation with Trump that appears to relate to the payment to Daniels, in which they are heard discussing whether the payment should be made in cash.
Cohen also testified before the grand jury that indicted Trump. In 2018, Trump initially denied any knowledge of the payment, but later admitted in a careful tweet that he had paid Cohen. Trump said he had nothing to do with the campaign.
What law is Trump accused of breaking?
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced Trump’s indictment by a grand jury in April 2023, accusing the former president of “falsifying New York business records to conceal prejudicial information and illegal activity from the American voters before and after the 2016 election.”
Technically, Trump has been charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records, a class E felony. Trump was charged with a felony because prosecutors accused him of falsifying business records with the intent to commit or conceal another crime related to his 2016 campaign.
It’s the least serious type of crime in New York, meaning that if Trump is convicted, a judge could sentence him to a maximum of four years in probation or state prison on each count.
There’s a lot to it
This is a long and sordid story, and what’s in this update is barely scratching the surface.
It’s almost beyond the scope of the payoff, but there’s the question of whether the alleged affairs took place. Trump has denied they happened. But both women, whose stories are very similar, say they had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. They both saw him at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe. They both said they visited him at a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
This case has taken a very long time to build. Federal investigators pursuing Cohen never brought charges against Trump. It took years for the Manhattan district attorney to present the case to a grand jury. Now it could theoretically be the only one of the four criminal cases against Trump to go to trial before the November election in which he is trying to reclaim the White House.
There will be drama in the courtroom. Judge Juan Merchan, who oversees the hush-money case, extended a gag order on Trump after the former president attacked Merchan’s daughter on social media. However, Trump is still likely to find a way to campaign from outside the courtroom, attacking New York officials like Bragg.
It’s a Shakespeare play. Cohen has gone from being Trump’s ally to his enemy. Daniels’ former lawyer, Michael Avenatti, who was once on the airwaves, is now in federal prison for stealing clients’ money. The list of witnesses in the hush-money case also includes former Trump aides like Hope Hicks.
McDougal has largely stayed out of the public eye, but there is a documentary that focuses solely on Daniels.
In many ways, the issue is reminiscent of an earlier time in American politics, when Trump was still an insurgent reality TV candidate and hadn’t fully reshaped the Republican Party in his populist image. It seems much smaller than the federal cases and the one in Fulton County, Georgia, in which he is accused of trying to fraudulently overturn the 2020 election rather than covering up some unpleasant personal allegations before the 2016 election.
But all those other cases are slowing down. The Supreme Court is taking its time considering Trump’s surprising claim that he should be granted immunity from all federal prosecution. A federal judge in Miami is enjoying Trump’s delaying tactics in the classified documents case. The Fulton County district attorney had to answer to the charges related to her private conduct. That’s why the New York case involving hush money given eight years ago is the one that will be heard first.
