Ivanka Trump testifies in New York civil fraud trial of family's business

Ivanka Trump testified Wednesday in New York Democratic Attorney General Letitia James' civil fraud trial of the Trump family and its business – following testimony from the former president and his two eldest sons.

After attempts to block her testimony, Ivanka Trump took the stand as her family fights allegations that her father, Donald Trump, inflated the value of his assets to get better terms on loans and insurance.

While former President Donald Trump and his two eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, are defendants in the lawsuit, Ivanka Trump, who left her job at the Trump Organization in 2017, was dropped from the lawsuit after an appeals court determined that the allegations against her were past the statute of limitations. 

"Now they are trying to bring Ivanka into the case, despite the Court of Appeals ruling that she cannot be charged. Sad!" the former president commented on the case early Wednesday morning on Truth Social.

Judge Arthur Engoron already determined that Trump could be held liable for fraud, and he will decide during the non-jury trial whether to follow James' recommended penalties of forcing the former president to pay $250 million and be barred alongside his two eldest sons from serving as officials of any New York business.

Ivanka Trump, like her brothers, has professed to have minimal knowledge about her father's annual financial statements. 

"I don’t, specifically, know what was prepared on his behalf for him as a person, separate and distinct from the organization and the properties that I was working on," she said under oath during the investigation before the lawsuit, according to The Associated Press. She also said she did not know how the statements were prepared.

This civil lawsuit is separate from the New York criminal case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg regarding Trump's alleged involvement in a 2016 payment that his former attorney, Michael Cohen, made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

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