Ivanka Trump takes witness stand in the civil fraud trial that's scrutinizing the family business

NEW YORK: Ivanka Trump began testifying Wednesday in the civil fraud trial that is publicly probing the Trump family business, making an appearance she tried to prevent.

Ex-President Donald Trump's elder daughter, who has been in his inner circle in both business and politics, rounds out a major stretch in the trial. Her father gave caustic testimony on Monday, and her brothers Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. testified last week.

Unlike them, she is no longer a defendant in New York Attorney General Letitia James' lawsuit. It alleges that Donald Trump's asset values were fraudulently pumped up for years on financial statements that helped him get loans and insurance.

The non-jury trial will decide allegations of conspiracy, insurance fraud and falsifying business records — but Judge Arthur Engoron already has resolved the lawsuit's top claim by ruling that Trump engaged in fraud. That decision came with provisions that could strip the ex-president of oversight of such marquee properties as Trump Tower, though an appeals court is allowing him continued control of his holdings, at least for now.

James, a Democrat, is seeking over $300 million in penalties and a ban on Trump doing business in New York.

The ex-president and Republican 2024 front-runner denies any wrongdoing, as do the other defendants. He insisted in court Monday that his financial statements greatly underestimated his net worth, that any discrepancies were minor, that a disclaimer absolved him of liability and that «this case is a disgrace.»

Ivanka Trump was an executive vice president at the family's Trump Organization before becoming an unpaid senior adviser in her father's White House. Like her brothers, who are still Trump Organization EVPs, she has professed minimal knowledge of their 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 during sworn questioning for the investigation that eventually led to the lawsuit. She said she didn't know who prepared the statements or how the documents were compiled.

As a Trump Organization executive,