(Refiling to restore dropped words “has denied” in last paragraph)
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Former U.S. President Donald Trump and two of his adult children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, have agreed to testify in a New York state investigation of his business practices, a court document showed on Wednesday.
The Trumps are scheduled to testify beginning July 15, but they have until June 13 to ask New York state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, to further delay any testimony. The testimony would be postponed if that court issued a stay.
The agreement came after an intermediate state appeals court denied the Trumps’ bid to avoid testimony. Trump and his children had argued that testifying in the civil probe would violate their constitutional rights because their words could be used in a related criminal investigation led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
New York state Attorney General Letitia James says her more-than-three-year investigation has found evidence that the Trump Organization – which manages hotels, golf courses and other real estate throughout the world – misstated asset valuations to get benefits such as favorable loans and tax breaks.
Trump, a Republican, has denied wrongdoing and has called the investigation politically motivated. James is a Democrat.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld and Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler and Jonathan Oatis)
