Rachel Maddow: Will the Republican Party pay for Ivanka and Don Jr's legal fees too?

New York Attorney General Letitia James warned President Donald Trump and his children that she intends to pursue swift action to compel their testimony or hold them in contempt. The statement made it clear that if the Trump family thinks they can get away without testifying in the Trump Organization fraud case, they are sadly mistaken.

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow brought up the legal problems that Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump are facing.

"There is also a parallel criminal investigation into Trump's business practices being run by state prosecutors in Manhattan," Maddow recalled along with the attorney general's civil fraud case. "That investigation is being taken over by the new district attorney in Manhattan who was just sworn in this weekend, his name is Alvin Bragg ... Here is where it gets tricky for former President Trump and his two adult kids. If they give testimony in the New York Attorney General's civil investigation, that testimony could potentially be used against them in the criminal case. But if they refuse to testify to the attorney general, if they take the Fifth [Amendment], that very refusal could be used against them in the civil case. Then again, the civil case could be just as serious in terms of its implications for the Trump Organization. As of tonight, they're opting for door number three. The Trumps have filed a motion to the court to try to quash these subpoenas."

Maddow went on to cite a Dec. report that showed Republican donors paid $1.6 million for Trump's legal fees. That report was only a recent accounting because a Sept. 2021 report from the New York Times revealed that since 2015 the GOP has spent about $60 million in Trump's legal fees and compliance. The Republican Party made a deal with Trump to pay for all of his legal fees if he promised not to start a competing political party to the GOP, according to a book, "Betrayal," written by ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl.

"Here is my question: now that his kids have been subpoenaed as well, what do you think the odds are that Trump is going to figure out how to get the Republican Party to pay his kids' legal fees as well?" she asked. "Dad doesn't have to pay his legal fees. Republican donors pay for those. But Ivanka and Don Jr. have to pay for their own lawyers? It seems so unfair. What are the odds, right?"

See the video below:

Trump's kid's legal issueswww.youtube.com