Ivanka Trump’s testimony in her father’s New York fraud trial ended when one of her father’s lawyers accused the New York state attorneys of laughing while she spoke about her work for her family’s company.
According to Mail Online, the former first daughter spent five hours on the stand answering a multitude of questions about her father’s finances, their properties and her work with the Trump Organization.
The 42-year-old was the final witness for New York State in its case accusing Donald Trump and his two sons Don Jr. and Eric of inflating prices to secure better loan deals.
In the final moments of Ivanka’s testimony, lawyer Jesus Suarez erupted in fury and said: ‘I’m glad the government thinks this is funny’ after the former first daughter discussed her ‘labor of love’ renovation project of the Old Post Office in Washington D.C.
Suarez said he wanted ‘the record to reflect the government is laughing at its own attempts to destroy this country,’ as her appearance on the stand came to an end.
The moment came shortly after Ivanka insisted there was nothing wrong with asking her husband Jared Kushner for advice in securing better deals for loans.
Lawyers for Letitia James’ office spent the morning peppering her with questions about how she got Deutsche Bank to reduce the required net worth her father needed for a loan.
But in the afternoon she reflected warmly on projects for her father’s company, including the ‘labor of love’ re-development of the Old Post Office in Washington D.C. into a ‘superluxury hotel’.
When discussing the Doral golf course, she recalled how mother Ivana loved the property and would always visit the spa.
The 42-year-old retook the stand to take questions from the New York State Attorney and her father’s lawyers after Justice Arthur Engoron allowed emails between her and Jared to be discussed.
Lawyer Chris Kise had argued the emails were protected by spousal privilege, and that ‘the witness cannot be compelled to speak about communications with her spouse.’
But Engoron sided with New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office, after they argued the emails were sent from work addresses.
In the emails, Ivanka appeared to share details of Trump Organization loans with her businessman husband. In return, he told her how to get better deals.
‘My husband also was in real estate,’ she said from the witness stand. ‘Periodically we would discuss what we were working on.’
Kushner weighed in on Trump family projects, according to the emails shown by the state attorneys.
One he sent in June 2013 about financing for the Old Post Office in Washington D.C. read: ‘You could get better pricing.’
He also agreed to show the terms of the deal to investment bank Natixis, because he thought it would give the Trump Organization better terms.
‘It was not uncommon that I would ask my husband’s perspective on something I was working on,’ Ivanka said in defense of the emails.
In his final moments of questioning, Solomon focused on the Old Post Office Building in Washington D.C.
He produced a document showing that each of Trump’s adult children – Don Jr, Eric and Ivanka – had a financial stake in the hotel and that those stakes were part of a guarantee to Deutsche Bank for the loan on the property.
Ivanka confirmed she made $4 million from the hotel’s sale in 2022. Donald Trump made $126 million.
Solomon then finished his questioning, allowing Trump’s attorney Jesus Suarez to begin cross-examination.
He asked her about her role in her father’s financial statements and how deeply she was involved in redevelopment projects.
She delved into her relationship with Deutsche Bank executive Rosemary Vrablic, who she contacted to secure a $125million loan for the Doral golf club.
‘She expressed tremendous excitement to have our account,’ Ivanka Trump said of Vrablic.
Suarez was suggesting that the German bank was happy to have ties to the Trump family business.
The demeanor of Trump’s eldest daughter then seemed to warm as Suarez asked about her father’s love of golf.
When Suarez asked her about the Trump Doral project, Ivanka grew animated talking about her family’s long ties to the Florida golf resort and the work they did on it.
She said Donald Trump has a ‘deep and nostalgic love’ for the property.
‘My father had fond memories of the property. His father took him there,’ she noted. ‘He took my mother there.’ And she kept going.
‘Typically, he would focus on the golf and I would focus on the resort itself,’ she said of her and her father’s development of Doral, adding it was ‘a lot of work.’
In the first half of her testimony, Ivanka insisted she didn’t ‘recall’ asking bank executives to lower the $3 billion net worth required for her father to get the cash as she was peppered with questions about her role in securing loans.
She said she hasn’t worked for her father’s business empire since 2017, when she entered the White House as one of her dad’s advisors, and distanced herself from the financial statements central to the case.
There was a brief clash with the judge when he asked her to be more direct with her answers while she was interrogated about the favorable rates the Trump Organization received for loans between 2011 and 2017.
State attorney Louis Solomon showed her emails and documents tying her to multiple projects she worked on while she was an executive at the Trump Organization.
One was an email from 2011 in which she asked Rosemary Vrablic to lower the net worth her father needed to get a loan for Doral, which they bought for $150million.
Trump’s 2011 statement of financial condition listed his net worth as more than $4billion, but Ivanka proposed $2billion, and they eventually settled on $2.5billion.
‘You are the best Rosemary,’ Ivanka wrote in response.
She also bragged about the terms of the deal to former Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg and other execs by saying: ‘It doesn’t get better than this.’
Ivanka denied any knowledge of her father’s personal financial statements central to the case, and insisted her work focused on the Trump Organization.
When confronted with one of the documents tied to the Old Post Office in Washington D.C., she told Solomon: ‘You’re bringing back a lot of memories.’
In the first part of her testimony, Donald Trump’s lawyers repeatedly objected to questions the New York State Attorney asked Ivanka as she gave calm and collected answers in the case that could sink the business empire in the Big Apple.
