Ivanka Trump takes the stand LATEST: Former first daughter is cross-examined by Donald’s own lawyers after cool testimony in $250 million fraud trial

• Ivanka appears to have shared details of some Trump Corportation loans with her husband, Jared Kushner – and he offered his view on the terms.
• Kushner said in one June 2013 email that ‘you could get better pricing’ on one particuarly deal.
• Ivanka was asked about the email and said she consulted with Kushner on some things as he ‘also was in real estate’. ‘Periodically we would discuss what we were working on,’ she said.
• ‘It was not uncommon that I would ask my husband’s perspective on something I was working on,’ Ivanka said.
• The judge has allowed some emails between Ivanka and Jared Kushner to be used as evidence despite the defense argument that they are protected by ‘spousal privilege’.

• Ivanka Trump is back on the witness stand in the fraud trial against her father and the family company.
• She was escorted back into the courtroom at 2.23pm.
• This morning’s session was marked by some testy exchanges, insightful emails about Ivanka’s role securing Trump Corportation loans, and an argument about whether she could be asked about communications with her husband, Jared Kushner.
• Ivanka was brought back into the court after a brief legal argument over whether an email shown earlier from Ivanka to her husband, Jared Kusher, was protected by ‘spousal privilege’.

• An email from Ivanka Trump to her husband, Jared Kushner, has been shown to the court – but lawyers for the Trump Organization say it’s protected by ‘spousal privilege’.
• That’s a rule which states a husband or wife isn’t required to disclose a confidential discussion with their partner. The email was sent by Ivanka to Kushner in 2013 and referred to a deal involving Deutsche Bank.
• It was flashed on TV screens in the courtroom before Trump lawyer Christopher Kise said: ‘You can’t ask the witness about communications she had with her husband.’
• But the state’s team argue the document was handed over by the Trump Organization and so the privilege is ‘waived’. The judge agrees.
• Ivanka married Jared Kushner in October 2009.

• Ivanka Trump and Judge Arthur Engoron shared a light joke after she was asked to leave the courtroom briefly while the attorneys argued a legal point.
• Ivanka waited in a small private area beside the courtroom while Trump’s lawyers argued without success about the state’s line of questioning.
• ‘Sorry to have kept you in the dark,’ Engoron told Ivanka with a smile after she was brough back into court, prompting a laugh from the former first daughter.

• Ivanka has been called out again by Judge Engoron for delivering a lengthy response to a ‘yes or no’ question.
• She was asked whether dealing with Deutsche Bank’s private wealth team, rather than its commercial real estate group, meant the Trump Organization got better loan terms. ‘I hadn’t thought about it in those terms,’ said Ivanka, before delivering her answer.
• Ivanka looks unfazed by the exchange, though, and told the judge she was ‘giving context’. Ivanka simply turned back to the state’s attorney ready for the next question.

• Ivanka Trump has been escorted back to the witness stand after a short break in proceedings. She’s been given another stack of email exhibits to look over and answer questions about.
• She is seated in a wood-paneled stand to the right of Judge Engoron and taking questions from Louis Solomon, who’s a lawyer for the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the case.
• The legal teams held a brief and intense private conversation with Judge Engoron at his chair before court resumed.
• As our pictures show, Ivanka is forced to walk by a large pack of photographers as she makes her way into the courtroom. There are no photos allowed inside.

• Ivanka has kept cool, calm and collected in the witness stand during the first session of the hearing. Court has now paused for a 15 minute break and Ivanka has been escorted to a private area outside the courtroom.
• The hearing is a stark contrast from her father’s testimony. Trump was repeatedly chided by Judge Arthur Engoron for lengthy answers which involved brazen criticisms of the case against him.
• The judge has only had to instruct Ivanka a couple of times – once to ask that she move the microphone closer, and a second time to (politely) call out her lengthy response to a ‘yes or no’ question.
• The initial session concluded with a question to Ivanka about whether she ever had a hand preparing Trump’s financial statements, which were allegedly falsified. ‘Not that I’m aware of,’ she replied.

• As a third-party witness, Ivanka will not sit as the defense table nor is she permitted in the courtroom separate from being called to the stand.
• Ivanka’s lawyer Bennet Moskowitz and her spokesperson Rachel Craddock are seated in the benches with the rest of the observers.

• Discussing a loan deal offered to the Trump Organization by Duetsche Bank, Ivanka Trump gushed: ‘It doesn’t get better than this.’
• The comment appeared in a 2011 email from Ivanka to Allen Weisselberg, the disgraced former chief financial officer of the Trump family firm, and several other associates. Weisselberg pleaded guilty in 2022 to charges including tax fraud.
• Ivanka referred to an offer from Deutsche bank and wrote: ‘It doesn’t get better than this, let’s discuss asap.’
• Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba (pictured arriving at court), objected and claimed the email from Ivanka to Weisselberg was never sent.
• Deutsche loaned money to the Trump Organization after it received financial statements which allegedly included inflated valuations of Donald Trump’s properties.

• The court has been shown a series of emails between Ivanka and business associates related to the Trump Organization’s developments, including the resort in Doral, Miami.
• She said the family firm spent ‘enormous amounts of money’ investing in the Doral property.
• Trump’s attorneys have repeatedly objected to the email exhibits, complaining about their relevance and arguing they are not submissible under the statute of limitations.
• The emails, which include information about the financial agreements for the properties, are being shown on screens around the courtroom and Ivanka also has paper copies which she’s been leafing through on the witness stand.
• Christopher Kise, an attorney for Trump, told the judge that the state’s team have been given ‘extraordinary latitude on the introduction of evidence’. Kise said he expects the same treatment when Trump’s team outline their defense.

• Ivanka Trump has been asked by the judge to ‘move the microphone closer to you’ so her answers carry throughout the large, cavernous courtroom.
• That’s the opposite of what happened with her father – Judge Engoron had to tell Donald Trump’s lawyers to keep him ‘under control’ because of his rambling, animated responses.
• Ivanka has been delivering her testimony quietly and calmly, but she’s speaking quickly. She has fixed her gaze intently on the attorney general’s counsel, Louis Solomon, as she responds to his questions.
• The bulk of her initial testimony has included an outline of the work she carried out for the Trump Organization, where she was an executive vice president. She said she worked closely with her brothers, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, who are both defendants in the case.

• The former first daughter, 42, walked into the courtroom at 10am flanked by a small team of courthouse security.
• Moments earlier, the state’s team formally called her as a witness. Judge Arthur Engoron triggered some laughter after he quipped: ‘Who’s she?’
• Ivanka was immediately asked whether she swears to tell the truth during her testimony. ‘I do,’ she replied, before confirming her name and address for the court.
• Donald Trump had been forced to sit at the defendants’ table with his attorneys before giving his own testimony – but Ivanka was spared that humiliation after she was dismissed as a co-defendant.

• AG James has taken her seat in the courtroom – in the front bench directly behind the plaintiff table

• The former first daughter is wearing Jimmy Choo heels, a Carolina Herrera coat and a Chanel purse

• AG Letitia James has said the prosecution will rest their case after Ivanka Trump’s testimony

• The mother-of-three noted the scheduled testimony next week comes in the middle of a school week

• Ivanka Trump’s testimony in a New York state court in her father and brothers’ trial could make or break Attorney General Letitia James’s $250 million suit against the Trump family and its namesake business
• She and her attorney fought a subpoena, arguing traveling to New York from her Florida home would place ‘undue hardship’ on her

• The former first daughter’s motion was rejected and she is scheduled to testify on Wednesday in Manhattan

• Donald Trump and his legal team have been at loggerheads with the judge of his fraud trial
• Engoron was frustrated by Trump’s responses to his questioning, asking for him to be controlled by his entourage as ‘this is not a political rally’
• His most recent ruling found that Trump had inflated his net worth – committing multiple years of fraud by exaggerating his wealth on financial statements used to get loans and secure deals

The weekend New York Times / Siena poll shows Trump opening up a lead over Biden in key swing states that will decide the winner next year – with a stunning 10-point lead in Nevada and a 6-point lead in Georgia.

The results have some Democratic strategists saying Biden must decide whether it is wise for him to continue his path to be the party’s likely nominee.

Donald Trump concluded his bombshell fraud trial testimony on Monday with a parting shot at New York’s attorney general and by calling the case a ‘witch hunt’ overseen by a ‘hostile judge’.

The former president repeated criticisms he made earlier in the day and accused Attorney General Letitia James of spending her time watching his trial while people are being ‘murdered on the streets of New York’.

The 77-year-old went further and demanded a jury trial and said the case should be thrown out ‘immediately’ as he walked out of the courtroom.

Former President Donald Trump plans to use the federal government to exact revenge on his enemies – from average Americans protesting his actions to former officials who have turned on him.

The Washington Post reported Monday that if Trump is reelected next year, his associates are already drawing up plans for him to invoke the Insurrection Act on his first day in office that would allow him to deploy the military against civil demonstrations.

The largest single-day protest in U.S. history was the Women’s March, which occurred the day after Trump was sworn-in in 2017.

The publisher of Mark Meadows’ White House memoir is suing Donald Trump‘s former chief of staff for allegedly publicly contradicting the main theme of his own book: That the 2020 election was stolen.

It comes after Meadows reportedly told the special counsel investigating Trump that he had warned the former president against making claims of fraud, and that neither he nor his boss really believed the election had been stolen.

All Seasons Publishing (ASP) launched a lawsuit at Sarasota County Court, Florida, on Friday.

New York AG Letitia James took the steps of a Manhattan courthouse to castigate former President Donald Trump after he went after her inside and outside the courtroom in his fraud case.

‘He rambled, he hurled insults, but we expected that,’ she said, amid hecklers outside the courtroom where Trump’s ability to business in New York is on the line as he faces up to $250 million in penalties.

James repeated her own claim that Trump ‘falsely inflated his assets to basically enrich himself’ to engage in ‘fraud.’

• Ex-President’s indictments have not hurt him but being found guilty of one of the 91 charges against him could hurt his chances in 2024, poll shows

• The former president finished testifying shorty atfer 3pm on Monday
• The defence deferred from a cross examination

• Judge Arthur Engoron’s ruled last month that Trump lied about his wealth for years and committed fraud by submitting false valuations to secure loans

• She described his face ‘going red’ when Trump was on the stand and accused him of wanting to ‘silence’ the 77-year-old former president

• On Friday Trump’s attorney Christopher Kise said: ‘I think the defense will have to give serious consideration to seeking a mistrial’

• The former president has re-entered the courtroom after a lunch break

• Habba responded to James’ comments earlier on Monday about ‘the numbers not lying’
• She said: ‘That’s right – the numbers don’t lie and they didn’t lie when you ran for governor and that’s why you dropped out’

• Trump will be back on the stand after a lunch break

• Trump said today that it is currently worth ‘between $1 billion and $1.5 billion’
• Judge Engoron has previously said Mar-a-Lago was overvalued by ‘at least 2,300%’
• Trump said of the judge’s decision: ‘Either people are very stupid or there is a fraud. The fraud is on behalf of the court.’
• ‘I’m worth billions of dollars more than the financial statements,’ Trump insisted

• The former president’s eldest son was grilled about his education, his work at his father’s company, and the jailed former CFO Allen Weisselberg in the State Supreme Court on Wednesday.
• Trump Jr. joked that he trusts accountants because ‘that’s why we pay them’
• He repeatedly said ‘I don’t recall’ and admitted that he ‘knows nothing’ about general accounting practices

• Judge Arthur Engoron is reporteredly no longer cutting off Trump in the second hour of the former president’s testimony on Monday
• The judge has been losing his patience with Trump in the first hour abnd threatened to remove him from the stand over his ‘on-responsive’ answers

• Her team argued ‘undue hardship’ if she were forced to testify
• Former president’s daughter is scheduled to testify Wednesday in fraud trial

• The 77-year-old is accused of inflating his assets and property values by billions in a lawsuit that could sink his business empire in the Big Apple.

• Trump gave a silent thumbs up sign to reporters as he went back into the courtoom at about 11.20am

• Trump made a ‘sealed lips’ gesture with his mouth over his mouth as reporters asked him how the hearing was going

• Trump attorney Alina Habba triggered an angry reaction from judge Engoron when she said the court should listen to Trump’s long answers because it was convened to hear what he ‘has to say’.
• Raising his voice for the first time, Engoron said: ‘No, I’m not here to hear what he has to say. I’m here to hear him answer questions.’
• After the confrontation, Trump said: ‘This is a very unfair trial, very, very, and I hope the public is watching.’

• Judge Arthur Engoron continues becoming frustrated with Trump’s answer and reportedly told his lawyer: ‘I will excuse him and draw every negative inference I can’ if the former president’s ‘non responsive’ answers

• CNN’s Kaitlan Collins notes Judge Arthur Engoron has admonished Trump several times during the morning hearing

• Judge Arthur Engoron admonished the former president for not answering questions from prosecutor Kevin Wallace as tensions flared
• ‘You can attack me all you want, but just answer the question,’ Engoran said after Trump railed against the ‘crazy’ trial

• The weekend New York Times / Siena poll shows Trump opening up a lead over Biden in key swing states that will decide the winner next year – with a stunning 10-point lead in Nevada and a 6-point lead in Georgia
• Trump’s lawyer Chris Kise, to his left below, reportedly cited the poll in court on Monday

• Judge Arthur Engoron will be ruling on the fraud trial as there is no jury
• Trump also lashed out at Engoran for ‘always ruling against me’
• The confrontation began as Trump was responding to questions about his historical financial statements

• The former president has taken the stand in his fraud trial in Manhattan

• Trump repeated the claim that the charges are politically-motivatd and pledged to win the 2024 presidential election bfore heading inside the courtroom on Monday

• James arrived in Manhattan court shortly at about 9.30am on Monday
• The AG Addressed Trump’s remarks against her as the former president is expected to testify
• She said: ‘I’m certain that Trump will engage in name-calling and taunts and race-baiting and call this a witch hunt. But at the end of the day, the only thing that matters are the facts and the numbers, and numbers my friends don’t lie.’

• The ex-president wrote on Truth Social as he prepares to head to court to testify in the $250 million civil case alleging he fraudulently inflated the value of his business empire
• Trump said the case is a way for President Joe Biden to ‘cheat’ in the 2024 presidential election – and took jabs at both the judge and New York Attorney General Letitia James for ‘election interference.’

• Eric Trump raised his voice and became annoyed as he was quizzed over Trump Organization documents
• Eric, 39, had arrived at court with his brother Don Jr., 45, flashing thumbs-up signs.

• Trump will take the stand Monday in Manhattan court for the civil fraud case alleging he dramatically inflated value of his properties
• Comes after his two eldest sons already testified last week and his daughter Ivanka is set to take the stand on Wednesday