Ivanka testifies her relationship with Deutsche Bank was hunky-dory despite New York's AG accusing Trump Org of defrauding it
- Ivanka Trump testified about her cozy relationship with Deutsche Bank.
Fraud? What fraud?
Ivanka Trump testified at her family's fraud trial Wednesday about her cozy relationship with Deutsche Bank, parrying accusations from the New York Attorney General's office that her company defrauded it.
Former President Donald Trump's eldest daughter testified about her chummy relationship with Rosemary Vrablic, who led a private banking team at Deutsche Bank that financed some of the Trump Organization's biggest projects, including part of the Trump Tower in Chicago, the Trump Doral golf course and resort in Miami, and the Old Post Office hotel in Washington, DC.
Ivanka Trump's testimony comes in a trial for a sprawling lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James against Donald Trump, his two eldest sons, and other Trump Org executives. It alleges they defrauded lenders, including Deutsche Bank, by misrepresenting the family company's finances to obtain favorable interest rates, among other financial chicanery.
During questioning Wednesday morning from Louis Solomon, a lawyer at the New York Attorney General's office, Ivanka Trump said she couldn't remember much about the loans. The attorney showed her emails and contracts, but she said she couldn't recall the specifics.
While the attorney general's office initially included Ivanka as a co-defendant in the case, she was later removed from it after an appellate court found that she stopped working for the Trump Organization after her father won the presidency in 2016, which meant the statute of limitations barred claims against her.
She is testifying in the trial only as a witness, and is the only member of Trump's family so far — her father, Donald Trump Jr., and Eric Trump — to face cross-examination from the Trump lawyers.
In cross-examination by her family's lawyer Jesus Suarez, Ivanka Trump played up her closeness with Vrablic and her team at Deutsche Bank. Vrablic had a "formidable" reputation in the industry, and they trusted each other, she said.
"I was constantly told by Rosemary and members of her team how much they appreciated the relationship," Ivanka Trump testified.
In one 2014 email, Vrablic thanked Ivanka and her family for "being such great clients" and noted they were "in the top 10 revenue-generating names" at the bank.
At times, Ivanka Trump testified, Vrablic even convinced her family to take out a loan with Deutsche Bank even if they didn't need to. Ivanka said her father was planning to purchase the Old Post Office building in DC in cash, but "we liked Rosemary and her team" and thought they had a good proposal for a loan, so they went for it.
Vrablic's team "periodically" came to Ivanka with possible investment opportunities, Ivanka Trump testified, whether it was properties up for sale, or working with Softbank. She gave an anecdote where, in 2011, a member of his team called her about a project.
"I was in the hospital, or about to go to the hospital with my first child," Ivanka Trump said. "And he called and asked if we were interested in the project."
The Trumps ultimately moved forward with the project, which involved a multi-year, multi-million-dollar property renovation, Ivanka said.
Trump's lawyers have argued in court that banks had to do their own due diligence for their loans. And, they say, they all got their money back — often ahead of schedule.
But New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron has allowed the lawsuit to move forward anyway. Even if Deutsche didn't sue the Trumps over misrepresentations in loan documents, the attorney general's office still had the power to bring the lawsuit anyway, the judge ruled.