Mary Trump, former President Trump’s niece and vocal critic, says that his daughter Ivanka Trump is “much less likely to stay loyal” to her father than Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, who is facing more than a dozen fraud and conspiracy charges.
Weisselberg pleaded not guilty last Thursday to 15 charges against him, including tax fraud, conspiracy, grand larceny and falsifying business records. He and the Trump Organization have denied wrongdoing, though prosecutors have indicated that their investigation is ongoing and more charges could be coming.
Weisselberg is accused of avoiding paying taxes on about $1.7 million in income between 2005 and 2017.
In an episode of “The New Abnormal” podcast, Mary Trump, an author and psychologist, said that prosecutors might not need to rely on Weisselberg’s cooperation because other people may be willing to flip on the former president, potentially including her cousins.
“If there are two sets of books for Allen, there are two sets of books for other people. And I think we’re also going to find that in these millions of pages of documents there will be more evidence,” Trump said.
“So either they’re not going to be solely relying on Allen Weisselberg to flip because either there’s documentary evidence of Donald’s direct wrongdoing or there will be other people who might be more willing to flip than Allen. And I think among those might well indeed be my cousins,” she continued.
Mary Trump then pointed to reporting from The New York Times last year, indicating that Ivanka Trump had received hundreds of thousands of dollars in “consulting fees” while she was an executive for the Trump Organization.
“She’s much less likely to stay loyal than Allen Weisselberg,” Mary Trump said.
“I think Ivanka has one, more to lose, and two, more to hang onto. Her husband’s family is legitimately very wealthy,” she said, referring to Jared Kushner.
Mary Tump has publicly been critical of her uncle while he was in the White House, including with the release of last year’s “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created The World’s Most Dangerous Man.”
CNN reported last week that Ivanka Trump and Kushner have been distancing themselves from her father’s unfounded claims of fraud in last year’s election.