Ivanka Trump testifies that she was unaware of her father’s finances

Her father went on the attack. Her brothers backed away. And on Wednesday, Ivanka Trump calmly dodged accusations that the family business thrived thanks to a lie.

Mrs. Trump, the fourth member of her family to take the witness stand in the civil fraud case brought by New York’s attorney general, was questioned for five hours about her father’s wealth and the loans he received for it.

While there were indications that Mrs. Trump had directly handled her father’s financial statements, which reported the value of his assets, she said her focus had been elsewhere.

“I would assume he would have personal financial statements,” she said, adding, “Those weren’t things I was aware of.”

The lawsuit stems from a lawsuit filed by Attorney General Letitia James accusing former President Donald J. Trump and his family business of fraudulently inflating his assets on financial statements.

Like her father and brothers, Mrs. Trump was initially a defendant, but an appeals court dismissed the case against her. She tried to avoid testifying during the trial, but the court demanded her cooperation.

Mrs. Trump’s testimony on Wednesday was polished and soft-spoken, a stark contrast to that of her father: Mr. Trump spent much of his time on the stand Monday ranting and talking about the case, which poses a major financial and reputational threat for his company. . Her behavior reflected the moderating role she played within her troubled family, but also the fact that the stakes were higher for her father.

Mrs. Trump’s testimony marked a surprisingly undramatic conclusion to the state’s dramatic case, with a parade of witnesses — 25 in 25 days — shedding light on the financial statements at the heart of the trial.

Before the trial, the judge overseeing the case, Arthur F. Engoron, ruled that the documents were fraudulent, giving Ms. James a major victory. The trial will determine the punishment, and the attorney general is asking the judge to impose some big fines: a $250 million fine and a permanent ban on the Trump family from doing business in New York.

There is no piece of evidence that directly points to the former president as the author of fraudulent conduct, but the drumbeat of facts tying him and his family to the inflated financial statements left the defense with a daunting task.

Mrs. Trump — a 42-year-old mother of three who remains a subject of public fascination even after retreating from the spotlight — made her first appearance at a lawsuit that threatens a company she once controlled. led as executive vice president. Although Mrs. Trump had been heir apparent, she followed her father to the White House and became embroiled in his polarizing presidency.

After losing her father in 2020, Mrs. Trump distanced herself from his business — and from his mounting legal troubles, which now include four criminal charges. Mrs. Trump also hired her own lawyer, separate from the legal team representing her family in Mrs. James’ case, a move that rankled some in the former president’s camp, a person with knowledge of the situation said.

Mrs. Trump headed to a gated community near Miami known as a “billionaire bunker” with her children and husband, Jared Kushner, who was also a White House aide. While Mr. Kushner built a lucrative business, Mrs. Trump kept a lower profile, sometimes diverging from her father, causing moments of tension between them.

Mrs. Trump’s previous testimony about her father, before a congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, was a major embarrassment for the former president. During the prime-time televised hearing, Mrs. Trump acknowledged that her father had lost the election, prompting him to attack her for “checking out” during the final days of his administration.

Although their relationship was tense for some time, the two have become close and speak regularly, according to the person with knowledge of the situation.

On Wednesday, Mrs. Trump appeared not as the top executive of the Trump Organization, but as a former employee, albeit one with a very personal connection to the matter.

She played a key role in establishing a number of the company’s relationships with lenders – most notably Deutsche Bank – and answered questions about loan terms.

The attorney general’s team provided Mrs. Trump with a 2011 email in which she told a Trump Organization colleague that favorable terms of a deal would only be possible if it were backed by a guarantee over her father’s assets.

“It doesn’t get better than this,” Ivanka Trump said in 2011 about the generous conditions. “Let’s discuss it as soon as possible.”

The bank’s offer required the Trump Organization to maintain a minimum net worth of $3 billion, excluding any value tied to Mr. Trump’s brand, illustrating a central contention of the attorney general’s case: that the loan terms were dependent on Mr Trump’s wealth, and that his financial statements were filed every year to meet these terms.

In another email exchange, the family’s banker at Deutsche Bank, Rosemary Vrablic, offered the Trump Organization another set of favorable terms, prompting Mrs. Trump to thank her profusely and say, “You are the best Rosemary!”

Yet Mrs. Trump remained silent when asked about the financial statements. At one point she was asked about an occasion when she was called to defend them. The meeting took place with a government agency evaluating her company’s bid to develop the Old Post Office, a federal building in Washington that would become the Trump International Hotel.

“I don’t remember them discussing the financial statements specifically,” she says. “The entire meeting was mainly about our vision of the project.”

Under gentle cross-examination by one of her father’s lawyers, Mrs. Trump talked about her role in the Washington hotel project — “I wore a lot of different hats,” she explained — and spoke fondly of her father’s empire in brochure-like terms: ” World-class food and drink’, ‘super luxury hotel’, ‘historic redevelopment.’

Her father’s lawyer, Jesus Suarez, also pressed Mrs. Trump to substantiate her claim that she was not involved in the financial statements. She obliged.

Mrs. Trump’s brother, Eric, also denied knowledge of the financial statements. But while Eric Trump grew irritated with questioning, with occasional outbursts, Mrs. Trump remained calm. Every resistance was delivered with a smile, including for the judge when she left the witness stand.

When she left, the attorney general’s team dropped their case. Outside the courtroom, Ms. James argued that the testimony strengthened the case, “despite the fact that she was very, very nice and very friendly.”

Mrs. Trump’s testimony followed her father’s bombastic appearance from the stand, where he branded the attorney general, a Democrat, a “political hack” and described the trial as “very unfair.” He denied involvement in fraud, but acknowledged a role in the preparation of the annual accounts.

Last week, Donald Trump Jr. testified. and Eric Trump, both said the statements were mainly the domain of accountants.

Mrs. Trump, asked about the main circumstance separating her from her brothers — her lack of involvement in the Trump Organization since her father took over the White House — said she has not done any work for the company since January 2017.

Her departure from the Trump Organization spared her a lot of legal trouble. Although Ms. James initially sued Ms. Trump, the appeals court ruled that the allegations against her were too old to be included in the case, noting that she had not worked for the company since Mr. Trump’s presidency .

This campaign cycle, Mrs. Trump has been virtually invisible, having declared she would play no role in her father’s latest run for the White House. “Although I will always love and support my father, in the future I will also do so outside the political arena,” she announced a year ago.

Although her old New York socialist circles largely shunned Mrs. Trump after her father’s presidency, she has begun to tiptoe back to the tabloids. She was spotted chatting with Prince William at Jordanian Crown Prince Hussein’s wedding in Amman, and last month she attended Kim Kardashian’s 43rd birthday party in Beverly Hills, California.

On Wednesday morning, as Mrs. Trump was called to the stand, Judge Engoron teasingly nodded to her celebrity status and her outsized role in the proceedings.

“Who is she?” he asked.

Maggie Haberman, Kate Christobek And Liset Cruz reporting contributed.