Ivanka Trump, the former president’s daughter, took the stand on Wednesday in the fraud trial against the family business and said she was not involved in the drawing up of the financial statements at the heart of the case.
The 42-year-old, who left the Trump Organization in 2017 to become a top White House advisor to her father, is not a defendant in the civil fraud case but was subpoenaed to testify.
Donald Trump, his eldest sons Don Jr and Eric and other Trump Organization executives are accused of inflating the value of their real estate assets by billions of dollars to obtain more favorable bank loans and insurance terms.
After being sworn in, Ivanka Trump was asked by Louis Solomon, a lawyer from the New York state attorney general’s office which brought the case, if she had “any role in preparing Donald J. Trump’s statements of financial condition?”
“Not that I’m aware of,” she said. “I didn’t know about his personal statements, per se, other than what you’ve shown me.”
A number of the loans secured by the Trump Organization were predicated on the former president’s evaluation of his fortune.
Ivanka Trump was also asked about various loans made to the family business between 2011 and 2016 but said she could not remember much of the details.
New York state Attorney General Letitia James said ahead of Ivanka Trump’s testimony that she had “secured, negotiated loans to obtain favorable terms based on fraudulent statements of financial condition.
“She will attempt today to distance herself from the company,” James told reporters. “But unfortunately, the facts will reveal that in fact she was very much involved.
“We uncovered the scheme and she benefited from it personally.”
The testimony by Ivanka Trump, who has kept a low profile since her father left the White House in January 2021, follows that of her father and her two brothers.
In contrast to her father’s volatile appearance on the stand on Monday in the same Manhattan courtroom, Ivanka Trump appeared relaxed and measured, her voice at times barely audible.
Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, clashed repeatedly with the judge while testifying, denouncing the trial as a “disgrace” and “election interference.”
