Ivanka Trump chose independent legal counsel in a lawsuit filed by the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James, prompting Ivanka’s mother, Lara Trump, to dispel rumors of a rift in the former first family.

A lawsuit filed by James in September accuses former president Donald Trump and his three eldest children, Don Jr., Eric, and Ivanka, of exaggerating the property values of the Trump Organization and associated businesses in order to secure more affordable loans.

The attorney general seeks damages of $250 million and an exclusion of the Trumps from conducting business in New York.

According to Forbes, Don Jr. and Eric hired Clifford Robert and Michael Farina to represent them in the dispute last October. The counsel then informed the court that they would now represent Ivanka.

But on March 6, a different attorney for Ivanka requested that the trial be postponed in a letter to the judge.

In the letter, he stated, “The complaint does not contain a single allegation that Ms. Trump directly or indirectly created, prepared, reviewed or certified any of her father’s financial statements. The complaint affirmatively alleges that other individuals were responsible for those tasks.”

In other words, the counsel indicated that Ivanka’s case would likely differ from that of her brothers.

The following week, Bennet Moskowitz notified the court that he was assuming Ivanka’s legal representation in the litigation and that Robert and Farina would no longer be assisting her.

In response to Ivanka’s choice, Lara Trump, Eric’s wife, told the U.K. Daily Mail, “I think people are trying to make that a bigger deal than it really is.”

“It’s not common to have to go through all this stuff that my husband and his siblings go through,” she added. “They’ve had a series of different attorneys throughout this entire process and it just so happened that Ivanka felt closer to one, gravitated towards that [one].”

More on this story via The Republic Brief:

“She [may have] said, ‘I’m going to have this person directly for me,’ but [the attorneys] all work as a team. I think that got lost in the story,” Lara said.

Lara was questioned by The Daily Mail if she and Ivanka ever get together considering they both reside in southeast Florida.

“We do,” Lara responded. CONTINUE READING…