Ivanka Trump

Ivanka Trump, the daughter of Donald Trump, is the last witness for the New York attorney general’s office and will testify on Wednesday in the former president’s civil fraud trial.

Even though Ivanka Trump was removed from Attorney General Letitia James’s case earlier this year by an appeals court, she will probably still be questioned about her involvement in obtaining financing for properties while she was employed by the Trump Organization and the appraisal of an apartment she rented in one of her father’s Manhattan buildings.

Her evidence follows her father’s appearance on the witness stand on Monday, during which the former president repeatedly irritated Judge Arthur Engoron by attacking the attorney general and the judge with political jabs.

Ivanka Trump’s attendance on Wednesday may not have generated as much excitement, but the circumstances surrounding her testimony have certainly generated drama. Engoron decided that she had to testify despite her filing a move to revoke the subpoena demanding her testimony. Her request for a stay was granted by an appellate court, even though she stated it would be challenging to present during a school week.

Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump’s brothers and co-defendants in the lawsuit, gave testimony last week.Ivanka Trump is aware of the accusations made in the civil fraud trial, in which the state attorney general is requesting a $250 million damages award as well as a ban on Trump’s ability to conduct business in the state.

Before joining her husband, Jared Kushner, as a top advisor in the White House in 2017, she was an executive at the Trump Organization.
The attorney general’s first lawsuit, which was filed in September of last year, focused on Ivanka Trump’s role in obtaining a loan for the purchase of Trump’s Doral golf course in Florida and Chicago properties in 2012. The attorney general claims that the loan was extended in part due to Trump’s false financial statements that exaggerated his assets.

The complaint claims that “Ms. Trump knew that on each of those transactions with Deutsche Bank, the transactions included a personal guarantee from Mr. Trump that required him to provide annual Statements of Financial Condition and certifications.”

On Monday, Trump was questioned to confirm that, when he signed those loan agreements, he was aware that they contained requirements for annual financial accounts and a minimum net worth.

Ivanka also participated in the auction for the Washington, DC, Old Post Office, which Trump turned into a hotel before selling it the previous year.

The attorney general’s office stated in a letter that “Mr. Trump and Ivanka Trump participated personally in the bidding process in 2011.” “Ivanka Trump was specifically involved in drafting correspondence to the GSA regarding the bid and replying to the GSA’s criticisms of deficiencies.”

Before the trial ever began, Engoron declared that Trump and the other defendants were guilty of fraud. The amount of damages the Trumps will have to pay for the alleged gains they made through dishonest business practices is currently being considered by the judge. In addition, the attorney general is attempting to substantiate allegations of insurance fraud, phony financial statements, and falsified corporate documents.

Ivanka Trump disassociated herself from the financial records in a deposition taken last year for this probe, stating that she was aware the companies had them but that she had no “specific” memory of her father having personal financial statements.

“Yeah, he has accountants with a ton of stuff and statements, but no, sorry, I don’t know exactly what was prepared for him as an individual apart from the company and the properties I was working on, so no, I don’t know how they did that and who prepared that and the mechanisms like that,” the witness stated in her deposition.

When asked if, as a University of Pennsylvania graduate from the Wharton School of Business, she was aware that financial statements fairly depict the financial status of an entity by including all of its assets and liabilities, she said, “I’ve never prepared one. I’m not sure. I haven’t produced any. I’m not a book-keeper.

Ivanka is not a co-defendant any longer
She will be questioned about her work at the Trump Organisation, but as a result of an appeal court decision in June, she is no longer involved in the case.

After determining that Ivanka Trump was not a party to an August 2021 arrangement between James’ office and the Trump Organization to tollell the statute of limitations, the court dismissed the charges against her.

By the time the tolling agreement was completed, “the record before us…indicates that defendant Ivanka Trump was no longer within the agreement’s definition of ‘Trump Organization,'” the order reads. “Any claims arising after February 6, 2016, are not supported by the charges made against defendant Ivanka Trump. Therefore, all accusations made against her ought to have been rejected as premature.

Engoron has rejected the assertions made by Trump and his lawyers that the statute of limitations should likewise bar claims made against the former president.

Ivanka Trump attempted to circumvent her testimony in the case by utilizing the appeal court’s decision. Bennet Moskowitz, her attorney, contended that the court lacked jurisdiction over her as she had ceased to be a resident of New York and had stopped working there in 2017.

Ivanka’s testimony was subpoenaed, according to Trump’s lawyers, as part of “continuous harassment of President Trump’s children.”

Attorney Chris Kise stated, “They want her in the courtroom so it can be packed with media and we can have another circus day.”

Ivanka’s penthouse apartment Another issue Ivanka Trump is likely to get questions about is a Penthouse apartment in Trump Park Avenue that she leased. According to the attorney general’s complaint, her rental agreement included an option to purchase the unit for $8.5 million. But in Trump’s 2011 and 2012 statements of financial condition, the unit was valued at $20.8 million. In 2013, it was valued at $25 million. The complaint also alleged that she was given an option in 2014 to purchase a different, larger penthouse unit in the building for $14.3 million – but the unit was listed in the 2014 statement of financial condition for $45 million.

“In that year, Ms. Trump’s option to purchase the unit at a steep discount was included in a lease in which she was charged a rental payment substantially below the market rent for similar units in the same building,” the complaint states. Donald Bender, Trump’s former accountant at Mazars, testified that his job was not to audit the financial statements, but “from time to time,” he would point out errors to Trump Organization officials.