The New York State attorney general’s office, which last month subpoenaed Donald J. Trump as part of a civil investigation into his business practices, is also seeking to question two of his adult children as part of the inquiry.
The involvement of the children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, was disclosed in a court document filed on Monday as the Trump Organization sought to block lawyers for the attorney general, Letitia James, from questioning the former president and his children.
The subpoenas for the former president and two of his children were served on Dec. 1, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Eric Trump, another of Mr. Trump’s sons, was already questioned by Ms. James’s office in October 2020.
The attorney general’s effort to interview Mr. Trump under oath became public last month, but it was not previously known that her office, which has been conducting a civil investigation into the former president’s business practices for almost three years, was also looking to question Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump.
Mr. Trump’s three elder children — Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric — have long been deeply involved in their father’s company, the Trump Organization, which each of them joined shortly after graduating from college.
When Mr. Trump became president in 2017, he turned the business over to Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, as well as the company’s longtime chief financial officer, Allen H. Weisselberg. Ms. Trump took an office in the West Wing.
Ms. James’s civil inquiry is focused on whether Mr. Trump fraudulently inflated the value of his assets to secure bank loans and understated them elsewhere to reduce his tax bill.
She has obtained a number of documents related to the inquiry and has scrutinized several of the Trump Organization’s properties, including its Seven Springs estate in Westchester County and the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago.
If Ms. James finds evidence of wrongdoing, she can file a lawsuit. As her investigation is civil, she cannot file criminal charges.