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Ivanka Trump is likely to be "cornered and carved up" by the New York Attorney General's lawyers during her appearance in court for her father's fraud trial on Wednesday, Donald Trump biographer Tim O'Brien said.
Following the testimonies of her brothers Donald Jr. and Eric Trump last week, Ivanka Trump is expected to take the stand on Wednesday in a case that sees her father Donald Trump and his organization accused of scheming to inflate the value of his assets. This was to secure financial benefits including more favorable loan and insurance policy terms.
New York Attorney General Letitia James brought the civil lawsuit against Trump, his two eldest sons and his organization last year, seeking $250 million. While Donald Jr. and Eric Trump are among the defendants in the case, Ivanka Trump Though Ivanka Trump is no longer a defendant after an appeals court dismissed the case against her over statute-limitation issues. But she is still a witness in the New York trial.
Donald Trump, who has denied any wrongdoing, testified on Monday.
O'Brien, author of the 2005 biography TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald, told MSNBC on Tuesday that Ivanka Trump's testimony could be damaging to her father's defense. According to the author, Ivanka Trump is going to be confronted about the Trump Organization's business dealings.
"There's a strong likelihood she will just get cornered and carved up a little bit, as prosecutors do," O'Brien said.
"She's going to get facts put in front of her, which is always challenging for everyone in the Trump family," he said. "They're used to spinning tales about their business and tales about their success and their banking relationship and their relationship with tax authorities and insurers in the court of public opinion. But it's a very different matter when you are put under oath and given documents for your own testimony," he added.
O'Brien mentioned the relationship between father and daughter, including several sexualized comments Trump made about Ivanka through the years, including remarks on her breasts, her backside, and what it would be like to have sex with her.
"This tension with her father, all of the children are captive to Donald Trump, they don't really exist comfortably outside his orbit, and she has a particularly convoluted, strange relationship with him," he said. "The whole thing just makes for quite a show in the courtroom."
The line of questioning of the prosecution on Wednesday, according to O'Brien, would focus on Ivanka Trump's role in negotiating deals for the Trump Organization.
"All of the Trumps have tried to distance themselves from this idea that when they gave valuations for what they owned to banks they simply relied on their accountants, but the reality is their accountants refused to sign off on these financial statements," he said.
Newsweek contacted the Trump Organization for comment by email on Wednesday.
About the writer
Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on the U.S. economy, housing market, property ... Read more