Donald Trump and two eldest children ordered to testify in investigation of family’s business

Former President Donald Trump and his two eldest children, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr, have been ordered to testify in an investigation of the family’s business.

New York's attorney general issued subpoenas (a legal order instructing a person to attend a court) against the three in connection with an ongoing civil investigation into the Trump family business practices.

Attorney General Letitia James' office said the filing is seeking testimony and documents from the former president and his children "in connection with an investigation into the valuation of properties owned or controlled" by Donald Trump and his company, the Trump Organization.

The investigation is probing whether the Trump Organization manipulated the value of its own properties by inflating them to gain favourable loan terms or minimising them to reap tax savings.

The attorney general's attempt to get testimony from the former president was reported in December, but the court filing Monday was the first public disclosure that investigators were also seeking information from Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr.Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr are longtime business associates of their father.

The pair are expected to file motions to try and invalidate the legal order, the Attorney General's office said in a court filing released on Monday.

Trump sued James last month, seeking to end the investigation after she requested that he sit for a January 7 deposition.

Trump's lawsuit alleged that the probe has violated his constitutional rights in a “thinly-veiled effort to publicly malign Trump and his associates.”James, a Democrat, has spent more than two years looking at whether the Trump Organization misled banks or tax officials about the value of assets.