Ivanka Trump denies involvement in father’s financial statements

Ivanka Trump testified Wednesday that she had no role in her father’s personal financial statements, echoing her adult brothers about documents central to the civil fraud trial that could reshape Donald Trump’s family business.

The former U.S. president’s elder daughter, who has been in his inner circle in both business and politics, rounds out a major stretch in the trial. Her father took the stand on Monday, and her brothers, Eric and Donald Jr., testified last week.

Unlike her father and brothers, Ivanka Trump is no longer a defendant in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit, which alleges that Donald Trump’s asset values were fraudulently pumped up for years on annual “statements of financial condition” that helped him get loans and insurance.

“I wasn’t involved in his statement of financial condition,” Ivanka Trump, a former executive vice-president at the Trump Organization, told the court during even-tempered testimony that provided a counterpoint to her father’s caustic turn on the stand. (She periodically flashed broad smiles and at one point thanked a lawyer in James’s office for bringing up a 2011 development proposal, saying it “brought back a lot of memories.”)

Kushner introduced her to banker

Before leaving the company to go with her father to the White House, Ivanka Trump was the point person in establishing a lending relationship with Deutsche Bank’s private wealth management arm.

It eventually extended the company hundreds of millions of dollars in loans, with terms that required Donald Trump to submit his financial statements each year.

Ivanka Trump testified that her husband, Jared Kushner, introduced her to a banker as the Trumps were seeking financing to buy and overhaul the Doral golf resort near Miami.

The non-jury trial will decide allegations of conspiracy, insurance fraud and falsifying business records — but Judge Arthur Engoron has already resolved the lawsuit’s top claim by ruling that Trump engaged in fraud.

That decision came with provisions that could strip the ex-president of oversight of such marquee properties as Trump Tower, though an appeals court is allowing him continued control of his holdings, at least for now.

Donald Trump denies wrongdoing

The ex-president, who is the Republican front-runner in the 2024 election race, denies any wrongdoing, as do the other defendants.

He insisted in court Monday that his financial statements greatly underestimated his net worth, that any discrepancies were minor, that a disclaimer absolved him of liability and that “this case is a disgrace.”

Ivanka Trump was an executive vice president at the Trump Organization before becoming an unpaid senior adviser in her father’s White House.

Her brothers are still Trump Organization EVPs, and they became trustees of a organization set up to run the company when their father went to the White House.

The sons also have professed minimal knowledge of their father’s annual financial statements. Donald Trump Jr. testified that he dealt with the documents only in passing; Eric Trump said he relied completely on accountants and lawyers to ensure the documents’ accuracy.

Left Washington, moved to Florida

Ivanka Trump said she didn’t recall ever having provided asset valuation information for the statements or having reviewed them before they were finalized. She recalled being shown “a few documents and correspondence that referenced financial statements, but that was not something I was involved in.”

“Those were not things that I was privy to,” she testified while being asked about financial statements referencing some apartments in a Trump-owned building on New York’s Park Avenue that she had options to buy.

State lawyers contend that Donald Trump was giving his daughter a steep discount on the apartments while claiming on his financial statements that they were worth far more.

Later, she was briefly excused from the witness stand while James’s legal team and defence lawyers tangled over the scope of her questioning.

As a Trump Organization executive, Ivanka Trump dealt with securing a loan and a lease for a Washington hotel and financing for the Doral resort in Florida and a hotel and condo skyscraper in Chicago, according to court filings.

In January 2017, as her father’s inauguration neared, she announced that she was stepping away from her Trump Organization job. After her time in the administration, she moved to Florida.

An appeals court dismissed her as a defendant in the lawsuit in June, saying the claims against her were too old.

Her attorneys contended that she shouldn’t have to testify. They said the state was just trying to harass the family by dragging her into court.

The attorney general’s office argued that her testimony would be relevant, saying she was involved in some events discussed in the case and remains financially and professionally entwined with the Trump Organization and its leaders.

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