Ivanka Trump pressed on involvement in key transactions at Trump Org fraud trial

MANHATTAN (CN) — Ivanka Trump took the witness stand Wednesday to give long-awaited testimony in her family’s civil fraud trial. She’s the last witness to be called by the New York attorney general’s office, which spent the morning grilling the 42-year-old about her involvement in refinancing various Trump Organization assets.

No longer a defendant in the attorney general office’s $250 million case against her family, Ivanka Trump has actively tried to distance herself from the Trump Organization since the lawsuit was brought last year. And yet her testimony on Wednesday suggested that she was nonetheless involved in some of the company’s biggest transactions.

Directing Ivanka Trump’s testimony was Louis Solomon of the attorney general’s office, who pressed her about her 2011 attempts to secure a loan for Trump’s Doral golf course in Miami.

“My father will also send you his most recent financial statements by hard mail,” Ivanka Trump had emailed a lender from Beal Bank while negotiating the potential loan.

Judge Arthur Engoron has already ruled that Donald Trump and the Trump Organization inflated the value of their assets on statements of financial condition — documents which were shared with banks, insurers and media publications to assess Trump’s wealth. In the case of the Beal Bank loan, Ivanka Trump said she couldn’t recall whether she volunteered the financial statement to the bank or if it was requested.

“Are you aware that Donald Trump represented his net worth as $4 billion on the 2011 statement of financial condition?” Solomon then asked her.

“No,” Ivanka Trump said blankly.

But that $4 billion figure would prove to be critical as Ivanka Trump continued shopping for loans for Doral that year. One offer from Deutsche Bank required Donald Trump’s net worth to be at least $3 billion. That provision seemed to concern Trump Organization lawyer Jason Greenblatt, even though Trump’s 2011 statement of financial condition suggested he was worth $1 billion more than required.

“The net worth covenant and djt [Donald Trump] indebtedness limitations would seem to me to be a problem,” Greenblatt emailed Ivanka Trump regarding the loan.

The attorney general’s office estimated Donald Trump’s net worth to be closer to $1.6 billion that year, more than $2 billion less than he claimed on his statement of financial condition.

Solomon repeatedly asked Ivanka Trump about those scrutinized financial statements on Wednesday. Like her brothers, she claimed that she had nothing to do with them.

“Did you have any role in preparing Donald Trump’s statements of financial condition?” Solomon asked.

“Not that I’m aware of,” Ivanka Trump said.

“Did you ever provide valuations for any of the assets… on Donald Trump’s statements of financial condition?" Solomon continued.

“Not that I recall,” she replied.

“Did you ever review any of Donald J Trump’s statements of financial condition before they were finalized?” Solomon asked.

“I don’t recall,” Ivanka Trump said.

Throughout her testimony, Ivanka Trump said she didn’t recall much about her communications with lenders. Granted, many of the emails pulled by the attorney general’s office were from over a decade ago.

That’s why Ivanka Trump was dropped from the lawsuit in the first place. She was initially listed as a defendant in the $250 million suit alongside her father and brothers, Eric and Donald Jr. until she was removed from the case in June by the Appellate Division of New York’s Supreme Court on statute of limitations grounds.

But New York Attorney General Letitia James believes the former first daughter has been more involved than she’s letting on.

“Unfortunately, the facts will reveal that, in fact, she was very much involved,” James said of Ivanka Trump outside the courthouse on Wednesday. “We uncovered the scheme and she benefited from it personally."

“Ms. Trump will do all that she can to try to separate herself from this corporation,” James added, “but she’s inextricably tied to the Trump Organization and to these properties that she helped secure financing for.”

Ivanka Trump confirmed Wednesday that, although she left the Trump Organization in 2017, she continued to profit off the sale of its assets.

She admitted that she was paid handsomely for the sale of the Old Post Office in Washington D.C. in 2022 — five years after she left the Trump Organization.

“Did you receive approximately $4 million with the OPO sale?” Solomon asked Ivanka Trump

“That’s consistent with my recollection, yes,” she said.

Ivanka Trump had previously tried to get out of having to take the stand in this case altogether. Last month, her lawyers sent a letter to the court asking to strike down the trial subpoenas requiring her to testify.

“Trial subpoenas are not a means for parties to get discovery, which they failed to obtain during pretrial proceedings,” Ivanka Trump’s attorney Bennett Moskowitz wrote in the 12-page letter. “The NYAG, which never deposed Ms. Trump, is effectively trying to force her back into this case from which she was dismissed.”

Engoron sided with the attorney general’s office, requiring her testimony.

Ivanka Trump was excused from the witness stand after less than four hours of direct examination and just over an hour of cross-examination, a far cry from the defense attorneys’ initial estimate of four hours of cross.

With that, the attorney general’s office conditionally rested its case — though it reserves the right to call Allen Weisselberg back to the stand after his testimony was abruptly cut short last month.

On Thursday, Trump’s lawyers will push for a directed verdict. They’ll likely face an uphill battle, as they’ve already unsuccessfully tried that move once before after Michael Cohen’s testimony.

Engoron refused to dismiss the case then, stating that it “has evidence all over the place.”

The defense team is expected to bring its first witness on Monday.

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