Ivanka Trump just put another nail in Donald Trump’s legal coffin
Ivanka Trump’s testimony is over, and it was… well, boring, if you were hoping for reality show style fireworks. But as I’ve been pointing out since this trial began, trials like this are almost never decided by some Perry Mason moment, and are instead decided by methodically proving key facts that the verdict rests on.
In that regard, Ivanka’s testimony – boring as it may have been for onlookers – served as yet another nail in Donald Trump’s legal coffin. Yes, most of her answers were some variation of “I’d like to be excluded from this narrative.” But prosecutors were able to use her testimony (or non-answers) as an opportunity to introduce key documents into evidence.
More importantly, this is a civil trial. In a criminal trial, the prosecution has to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt, and the defendant doesn’t even have to put on a defense. But in a civil trial, both sides are expected to prove their case, and the outcome is determined by who does the most convincing job.
In that regard, Ivanka Trump’s testimony did nothing to help Donald Trump make his case that the Trump Organization’s business practices were on the up and up. Donald Trump has already lost this case by summary judgment, and desperately needed someone on his side to turn things around with compelling testimony. But he didn’t get that from Ivanka at all. She was unable to help him in any way.
Given that the Trumps have all testified, and that none of their testimony has done anything to help their side’s case, the trial is basically over for them. They’re still trying to put some “expert” witnesses on the stand who will seek to spin things in their favor, in the way that none of the Trumps themselves could. But such testimony will be irrelevant.
The Trumps lost this trial before it began, and have spent the trial failing to reverse or mitigate that loss. Now it’s just a matter of how massive the financial penalties against them are going to be.
