MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin said her "jaw almost dropped" during a key part of Ivanka Trump's testimony in her father and brothers' New York fraud trial. The tail end of Ivanka Trump's direct examination by prosecutors revealed that Donald Trump, as part of lending agreements with Deutsche Bank, guaranteed that he could repay the principal, the income and the operating expenses of the relevant asset. "And that's a big guarantee," Rubin said. "What we learned today is that behind the scenes, Donald Trump entered into an agreement with each of his three adult children, whereby they pledged assets of their own to help him satisfy the guarantee, which, according to his contract with Deutsche Bank, was supposed to be his and his alone."
"He was literally borrowing money from his kids’ piggy banks in order to satisfy Deutsche Bank that he had enough money to borrow from them what he had," Rubin explained. "And I’m not sure the impact of that struck everyone in the courtroom, but like I said, my jaw almost dropped. I almost dropped my phone on the floor. I was just astonished by the proof that Donald Trump was robbing Peter to pay Paul, so to speak." On the stand, Ivanka Trump repeatedly testified that she "didn't recall" answers to questions from the prosecution about key details regarding some of her father's real-estate dealings. New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the case against the former president, his company and his sons, vowed Wednesday to prove that Ivanka Trump personally benefited from the Trump Organization's fraudulent activities, despite her dismissal from the case as a defendant earlier this year.
