Ivanka Trump became the fourth and final member of the Trump family to give testimony in her father’s high-profile civil fraud case.
The former first daughter attended the lower Manhattan courtroom on Wednesday after exhausting her attempts to avoid testifying in the trial, that threatens her family’s business and vast real-estate empire.
However, unlike her father – who gave evidence two days earlier – Ms Trump’s remarks on the stand were not infused with fiery rhetoric, grandiose statements or back-chat to judge Arthur Engoron.
In many ways, her testimony was unremarkable. But she repeatedly said she “could not recall” the details or documents about her involvement with major projects she later said she was “proud” to work on, or whether she was involved with her father’s financial statements that Judge Engoron has already determined were fraudulent.
Here are some of the stand-out moments from her evidence:
‘Who is’ Ivanka Trump?
Proceedings got underway swiftly on Wednesday morning, though seemingly with a pinch of sarcasm from Judge Engoron, who has previously appeared exasperated with his courtroom dealings with the former president and his lawyers.
After being asked to call the next witness, counsel for the New York Attorney General, Leititia James, announced: “The people call Ivanka Trump.”
“Who’s she?” Judge Engoron replied.
Ivanka Trump is the fourth member of the Trump family to testify in the trial— (Getty Images)
Ms Trump struggles to ‘recall’ specifics
Ms Trump repeatedly said she did not “recall” key documents about the family’s brand-building property deals – some of which the attorney general said she “captained”.
Similar to her brothers, Ms Trump distanced herself from statements of financial condition at the heart of the case, denying any involvement despite her apparent integral role in the Trump Organization’s real estate projects.
Counsel with the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James grilled Ms Trump about allegedly fraudulent documents used to secure favourable loans for several developments.
“I’m not involved with his personal financial statements,” she told counsel with the attorney general. “I didn’t know about his personal statements, per se, other than what you showed me.”
Asked whether she had “any role” preparing Mr Trump’s statements of financial condition, she said: “Not that I’m aware of.”
Ms Trump also said she does not recall providing any valuations for Mr Trump’s assets or reviewing any of those statements before they were finalised.
When later questioned further about her father’s financial statements, she replied: “We spent years working on a response to requests for proposals … Many emails, many conversations … I don’t have a recollection sitting here years later about this in particular.”
Lawyers for the Trump family exchanged barbs with Judge Arthur Engoron while Ms Trump was on the stand— (REUTERS)
Ms Trump also said she didn’t know anything about “generally accepted accounting principles,” [GAAP] the guidelines used to create statements of financial condition. But an email showed she asked Trump Organization executives to “review” them.
Ivanka says: “We spent years working on a response to requests for proposals … Many emails, many conversations … I don’t have a recollection sitting here years later about this in particular.”
‘Spousal privilege’ with Jared Kushner
An email between Ms Trump and her husband Jared Kushner from June 2013, discussing a loan, later sparked contention.
The emails contained a review of the loan terms with Capital One for development of the Old Post Office project in Washington DC. In the email, she outlines the principal loan amount, terms and rates.
Trump lawyer Christopher Kise asked the judge to block the email chain from being scrutinised, citing “spousal privilege.” Counsel with the attorney general countered that others were included in the chain and that the emails were “fair game”.
Judge Engoron later dismissed the argument, saying the emails were “not privileged”. When asked why she had sent the email to Mr Kushner, she responded: “My husband was also in real estate. ... Periodically we would discuss what we were working on.”
She added that she doesn’t recall the “exact exchange, but it was not uncommon” for them to talk about work.
Cross examination by defence
Ms Trump became the first person in the family who has taken the stand to face cross-examination from the defence. Neither Mr Trump, Donald Jr nor Eric faced questioning from their own team.
Trump attorney Francis Suarez began by asking her a string of yes-or-no questions about her involvement, if any, concerning the statements of financial condition.
Ms Trump spoke at length uninterrupted under cross-examination, using her time on the stand to hype up her role developing her family’s properties that, earlier in the day, she said she could not recall much about.
She talked at length about her father’s “nostalgia” for the Doral resort in Miami, the stories he told his children about it, and his “strong feeling that it was not living up to its potential”.
Judge Arthur Engoron quipped ‘Who’s she?’ when Ivanka Trump was called to give evidence— (Getty Images)
Clashes between judge and Trump attorneys continue
Though the interaction between Judge Engoron and Ms Trump herself remained civil throughout proceedings on Wednesday, attorneys for the family and the Trump Organization were less reserved.
At one point, Mr Kise grew enraged, claiming that the judge had “two sets of standards” when it comes to the attorney general and the defence.
"Your constant insinuations that I have a different set of standards. It’s just not true,” Judge Engoron replied “You can keep saying it if it makes you happy, that I’m favouring one side over the other ... I just make the rulings as I see them."
Mr Kise earlier said that Judge Engoron’s conduct towards the defence was “grossly unfair”.
Mr Suarez also became enraged after one of his exchanges with Ms Trump prompted laughter from the prosecution table and the courtroom.
“They’re laughing. They’re sitting back here and they’re laughing,” he said, pointing at members of the attorney general’s team. He added that the Trumps have done “great work” for America, “and they’re laughing.”
“They’re trying to destroy thousands of jobs in this state,” he said.
