I thought she was trying to suggest Deutsche Bank had bought into all of that and therefore understood and accepted that whatever they were told it was worth reflected its sentimental value, or some such implausibility.
“It’s Deutsche Bank’s fault for believing us”, basically.
Bankers are famous for their sentimental natures.
Well, they are certainly famous for their ability to loan money to hopeless ventures. Hence the need for frequent public bail-outs.
I suspect this is how Trumpco works when doing “deals”, by distracting, appealing to emotions and then bullying people into giving them what they want. Not unlike a car salesperson.
I didn’t follow news on any of Ivanka’s testimony yesterday, but one talking head I saw this morning said basically, her testimony didn’t particularly advance the prosecutions case, nor did it particularly harm the defense. Sounds like a wash.
Trump’s team asking Engoron for a directed verdict. Wow. Who saw THAT coming! /s
So THAT’s why he’s been buttering up the judge so blatantly!!
Yeah, because the summary judgement went so well. How much says Engoron’s response is “Sure. You’re all guilty of the last 6 charges.”
“In two weeks.” He’s been all about the quid and slow, if ever, delivering the quo pro.
Monty Python: “All right! We’ll call it a draw!”
I believe at one point she was asked about an exchange where there was concern about trump accurately reporting his net worth. She had responded by email, saying that they had to essentially inflate his personal value to obtain favorable loan terms (I’m paraphrasing greatly).
So her testimony was useful for the prosecution in demonstrating the correlation between trump’s inflated values and defrauding lenders.
Obviously Trump doesn’t want his lawyers to call up his family as defense witnesses because whatever they say can and will be used another court of law, a criminal court. That and he doesn’t want his true wealth revealed, he just wants to pay a fine and complain about how unfair he has been treated and not given a chance to tell his side of the story (after he gave up his chance to do so).
That and he is likely hoping that the judge will just levy the $250M fine instead of pissing the judge off more and getting a much larger fine. He would rather appeal the smaller amount and negotiate a smaller fine.
I will be very very shocked if Engoron’s ruling is not tighter than a gnat’s ass. It will be interesting if they can come up with any sort of basis for appeal that the next court will hear. Of course the next court may feel like they have to hear it considering the circumstances, but you don’t get an appeal just because you don’t like the verdict, right? I think you do in death penalty cases (auto appeal), but not civil.
For a successful appeal of a verdict, you have to argue that there were circumstances that prevented a fair trial. i.e. The judge made error on a matter of law, normal procedures were violated, evidentiary issues, ineffective counsel, and others. I’m not sure if ineffective counsel applies in civil cases. The appelate court won’t examine whether the verdict was correct. i.e. They’re not there to try the case again. They’re just there to make sure there was a fair trial.
Generally, every civil or criminal case gets one appeal as a right. Going higher typically requires the higher court to grant a petition or writ. I assume that’s true in New York State, but I don’t know it for a fact. The first level of appeal would be Supreme Court, appellate division.
Okay, I’m pretty sure this one is news to me. That Deutsche Bank loan agreement that required that Trump maintain a certain minimum net worth in order to support the personal loan guarantee?
The aggregate net worth figure was supposed to be the responsibility of Donald J. Trump alone, but he made an agreement with Don, Jr., Eric, and Ivanka to throw in with their own assets in order to maintain that number.
But that’s not fraud. That just means he’s a smart businessman, just like not paying taxes. 
If you think about it, trump has no discernible amount of money. He owns various pieces of real estate, which are worth something, but what is that actual value?
In practical terms, it’s not an amount we can readily discern, and perhaps not an amount he could ever actually obtain.
After all, how many people are actually in the market for a big office building, or a couple of golf resorts? Sure, there’s value there, but the bidders would be just a few select entities, right?
All the rest of trump’s “wealth” appears to just be money he’s borrowed. So donald really isn’t wealthy at all - he lives an expensive lifestyle, but he does it with other people’s money, based on completely illusory promises that he could get his own money if he had to.
It really is astonishing that he could keep this scam going for so long. It seems even more astonishing that he squandered it over a vain need to win elections.
He deserves to lose it all. And he’s going to.
Okay, I’m not a US lawyer, and all I know about this case and the applicable law is what I’ve read in the papers.
But it sure sounds to me like that testimony implicates all four of them in committing civil fraud, at the very least.