I wonder what she knows about the various business dealings and will she be called in the investigations .
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/nation-world/national/article205385524.html
She has 5 kids to look after. Unless Mueller can somehow give her a better living wage than the Trump family, I expect that she’ll keep her mouth closed on anything, sort of regardless of how patriotic she might be feeling. Even if she thinks that Junior is going to jail and their revenue streams might dry up, the Trumps still control a whole lot of physical assets that can be parceled out to all of the wives and children while the menfolk are figuring out how to thread a soap.
If she knows anything, Mueller doesn’t need to give her a living wage. The book deal would be enough for that.
Maybe somebody will leak the prenup. I don’t think those are normally made public but I could be wrong.
Serious dumb question: how would a divorce afffect spousal privilege in taking the stand?
Edit: here’s the answer: whatever spousal privilege may apply, divorce doesn’t have a big effect: the privilege applies to the time of marriage.
just noticed his mother Ivana is 4 times divorced. Two of her marriages lasted 2 years and 1 lasted 1 year. She was married to Don Sr. 15 years.
There is no national rule, results would vary by state. Some states holds that the privilege does not survive the marriage.
Does anyone know what New York’s rule is, then? That’s the one that’s most likely to be relevant.
There are two types.
For one type, the privilege is in regards to testifying against your current spouse.
For the other type, the privilege is in regards to testifying about confidential communications you had with your contemporaneous spouse.
So in the former case, divorce removes the privilege. In the latter, it doesn’t.
States differ on which person can invoke the privilege for the two types.
It’s interesting that the divorce is uncontested, though. It seems as though the Trump Way would be to stick it to the spouse as much as possible. (But to be fair, this will be Don, Jr.'s first divorce, so perhaps we shouldn’t assume he’d be vindictive.)
The ‘uncontested’ part could indicate that Don, Jr. finds it important not to antagonize his wife, who could certainly tell what she knows to investigators on an unofficial basis, were she so inclined.
By the way, 2005 wedding photos from the Don Jr. and Vanessa ceremony show the Trump sons at their worst. One hopes. https://www.theroot.com/eric-trump-might-be-the-dumbest-trump-out-of-all-the-tr-1821743300
It could simply show that he doesn’t want a court case dragging on while his dad is President. Seems pretty reasonable to me. You guys shouldn’t get your hopes up that this have any effect whatsoever on Mueller’s investigation.
You could be right, CarnalK. And of course we will probably never know if anything Vanessa might say to anyone at all, actually had an effect on the investigation.
The article I linked to suggests, if I read it correctly, that the confidentiality is broken if the information was communicated to a third party. I can’t imagine Mueller would be interested in anything Jr. might have said to his wife and only his wife, so the limit on spouses being allowed to testify probably won’t matter. Rather, the question is whether this changes what Vanessa can be compelled to testify about. On rereading that link, I’m thinking that her divorce removes this privilege entirely.
It looks like $10m is probably about the value of a political tell-all book deal.
Trump has (if I recall correctly) about $1.5b in assets. If she even got 1/100th of that, she’d still be better sticking with Trump. At 5 kids plus herself, I’d expect her to try and get at least $2-5m per person, so she’s probably thinking of a number in the $12-30m range.
Two things came to mind when I saw the news.
Could this be a ploy to hide some of the family’s belongings?
But then, I have the feeling that she/they might think it wise to put some distance between DC life in the limelight and her/their 5 children. The envelope with powder freaked her out, it appears.
It would not at all surprise me that this is some ham-handed way to secure some assets away from Mueller. “The best way I can provide for my children is to divorce their mom” is a pretty piss-poor way to live ones life.
Could well be. Trump himself may end up free from the net, simply by virtue of having been a lazy TV watching bastard that has learned over the years to give all his directives in voice, but I think that Junior and Kushner are both doomed and have little illusion on that fact.
I doubt that Junior would come up with the idea himself, but if I was their lawyer I might well pull him over to the side and tell him the exact steps he needs to take to get the money free from legal entanglement.
No idea if that’s actually the case. It’s just as easy that Junior started going to town with some cute partisan groupies and she already gave him a deal he couldn’t refuse, after catching him, that there’s no value in contesting anything in court.
I guess we’ll know by seeing how strongly she defends him in future years, when she gets interviewed about it.
I’m not sure I’m completely understanding your question/statement but yes, I think you have it right.
Since the testimonial privilege is broader and can cover things seen, known, discussed, witnessed, etc., it is the better protection of the two. If people think Jr. is chin-deep and that Vanessa knows all the things, their divorce is somewhat interesting for removing that protection. Though if she is disgruntled, in most places, she would be able to testify anyway, even if they were still married.
Seen on Twitter: “This is really gonna complicate those conjugal visits.”
Plus or minus about 3 billion.