Ivanka Trump says she wasn’t involved in statements on father’s finances

Ivanka Trump testified Wednesday she wasn’t involved in crafting financial statements at the heart of a New York civil fraud trial against her father and brothers, reluctantly taking the witness stand in Manhattan to describe work on major deals and loans tied to former President Donald Trump’s net worth.

Lawyers for state Attorney General Letitia James dug into Ms. Trump’s work for the Trump Organization’s hotel in Washington, its Doral golf resort near Miami and properties in Chicago as they conclude their case. The trial accuses Mr. Trump of submitting fraudulent financial statements to gain favorable terms on loans and insurance.

Ms. Trump said it was hard to recall details so many years later, though insisted she was not involved in her father’s statement of financial condition.

Ms. Trump said she didn’t recall ever having provided asset valuation information for the statements or having reviewed them before they were finalized. She recalled being shown “a few documents and correspondence that referenced financial statements, but that was not something I was involved in.”

She is the state’s final witness in the trial for the lawsuit. The defense will begin its presentation later this week and plans to wrap up by Dec. 15.

Mr. Trump’s adult sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, testified earlier. They professed minimal knowledge of their father’s annual financial statements, and Ms. Trump echoed that position.

Asked about financial statements referencing some apartments that she had options to buy in a Trump-owned building on New York’s Park Avenue, she testified, “Those were not things that I was privy to.”

State lawyers contend that Mr. Trump was giving his elder daughter a steep discount on the apartments while claiming on his financial statements that they were worth far more.

Ms. Trump was the point person in establishing a lending relationship with Deutsche Bank’s private wealth management arm, which eventually extended the organization hundreds of millions of dollars in loans. She testified that her husband, Jared Kushner, introduced her to a banker as the Trumps sought financing to buy and overhaul the Doral golf resort.

Deutsche Bank required Mr. Trump to have a net worth of $3 billion to qualify for the loan for Doral renovations.

Mr. Trump listed his worth at $4 billion in a 2011 statement of financial condition, but Ms. Trump sought a lower net worth as part of the covenant and the lender settled on $2.5 billion, according to ABC News.

Ms. Trump testified Wednesday in a soft, calm manner — a contrast to her fiery father, who irked the judge in his testimony on Monday.

Ms. Trump did not want to be in this position. She is not a defendant in the lawsuit, and she tried to avoid testifying in the case against her father and brothers.

But Judge Arthur Engoron, who will decide the case instead of a jury, said her business ties to New York made her a legitimate witness for Ms. James to call.

“Ivanka was a senior executive at the organization who secured more favorable loans by using Trump’s fraudulent statements of financial condition,” Ms. James wrote on X. “You cannot cheat for personal gain.”

Ms. Trump left the Trump Organization to work in the White House during her father’s administration. Since then, she has distanced herself from politics and her father’s 2024 campaign.

Mr. Trump said on his social media site that it was unfair to bring his daughter into the New York case.

“My wonderful and beautiful daughter, Ivanka, is going to the Lower Manhattan Courthouse, at the direction of Letitia Peekaboo James, the Corrupt and Racist New York State Attorney General, who has allowed Murder and Violent Crime in New York to flourish, and a Trump Hating, out of control Clubhouse appointed Judge, Arthur Engoron, who viciously ruled against me before the trial even started,” Mr. Trump, the GOP front-runner for the 2024 presidential nomination, wrote on Truth Social.

“Sad!” he added.

• This article is based in part on wire service reports.