here in the united states and all around the world. it is wednesday, january 19th. i m john berman. brianna is living the night life this week, and kasie hunt is here. it s great to have you here. look at all the beautiful buildings behind us. it s a beautiful morning. we have breaking news from overnight. major development and new details in the civil investigation of the trump organization. in a court filing, new york attorney general letitia james uncovered significance evidence, those are her words, of misleading and fraudulent practices to obtain economic benefits. this is a big escalation in her language. and the first time she has gone this deeply into specifics. the case also turning up the heat on trump s children. james said have been closely involved with the transactions in question. investigators now taking legal action to compel ivanka and don jr. to supply with subpoenas and
asserts they have uncovered significant evidence, those are her words, what what she calls misleading and fraudulent practices by the trump organization to obtain economic benefits. this is an escalation in her language and also the first real specifics of some of the wrongdoings she is alleging. james is turning up the heat particularly on trump s children. she claims that they have been closely involved with the transactions in question. investigators now taking legal action to compel ivanka and don jr. to appear for sworn testimony. let s bring in senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor elie honig and director to president trump and resigned in december 2020 and voluntarily spoken with republican members of the january 6th committee. let me start with you, elie.
appear for sworn testimony about the company s financial dealings. kara scannell has the latest breaking details from new york. reporter: new details emerging overnight in the new york attorney general letitia james effort to compel the testimony of donald trump, don jr. and ivanka. the attorney general alleging there is significant evidence of misstatements and omissions in these financial statements. the statements were provided to lenders and to insurers. as part of this, they say the statements have covered kind of the gamut across a number of properties, including golf courses in scotland and los angeles, including trump tower, the president s own penthouse, invo involving seven springs. they are trying to understand what role he played because his name is on these statements.
ruled former president donald trump and two of his children, ivanka and don jr., must sit for depositions in the new york attorney general s investigation. we are joined live from washington. tyrnie, the trumps argued sitting for the deposition in the civil rights litigation would undermine their constitutional rights. the judge didn t buy that. what did he say? reporter: what he said time and time again in the hearing and in the opinion he issued yesterday is that trump and his children have every opportunity to invoke the fifth amendment in this civil deposition. so they can refuse to ask answer specific questions that they think could incriminate them and that s the point that he kept making and making. why won t you just take the fifth? that s what they might have to do if they re going to have to sit for these depositions. and what was the answer to that? we know that the former president has talked about taking the fifth. he s made fun of it. is the issue that he just
criminal allegations and this isn t fair that we d have to talk, speak in a civil deposition before hand. this is where the judge as you indicated said, listen. this is a legitimate investigation. there is nothing in the law that says you can t have parallel things going against you. the fact that you might have criminal liability doesn t somehow insulate you from other ways that you could be held accountable. so honestly don when you see this and you see he made similar arguments when he was president about his accounting firm and lost those even with a conservative court, it does feel like this man donald trump seems to think this, just the rules that apply to everybody else don t apply to him and now that he is a private citizen it is not going to fly. it didn t fly as president at least with judges and really is not going to fly now that he is a private citizen. kevin mccarthy always likes to say rules for thee and not for me. donald trump is the epitome of that. william, what ab