Ivanka Trump Speaks Out on Father Donald’s Legal Issues: ‘Wish It Didn’t Have to Be This Way’

Raven Brunner
·3-min read

The former first daughter said her father's various criminal investigations have been "painful to experience"

<p>James Devaney/GC </p> Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump

James Devaney/GC

Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump

Ivanka Trump opened up about former President Donald Trump’s myriad legal issues.

While appearing on the July 2 episode of the Lex Fridman Podcast, the businesswoman, who served as a senior White House adviser from January 2017 to 2021, criticized the criminal charges against her father.

When asked about her feelings watching Donald go through "legal turmoil," Ivanka said on the podcast, "On a human level, it’s my father and I love him very much, so it’s painful to experience, but ultimately, I wish it didn’t have to be this way."

Lex Fridman, who started his podcast in 2018, expressed sympathy for her. "I like that underneath all of this, 'I love my father' is the thing that you lead with," he said. "That’s so true. It is family. And I hope amidst all this turmoil, love is the thing that wins."

Ivanka responded with optimism, saying, "It usually does."

Related: Supreme Court Says Donald Trump Is Partially Immune from Prosecution: What That Means for His Jan. 6 Charges

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Donald Trump and Ivanka Trump
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Donald Trump and Ivanka Trump

The former Trump Organization vice president took the witness stand last November in a civil fraud trial involving Donald, as well as her brothers Don Jr. and Eric.

The case accused the defendants of fraudulently inflating the former president's fortune by as much as $2.2 billion since 2011, and overvaluing many of its properties.

In Ivanka's testimony, she alleged that she did not know what valuations were included in her father's financial statements, adding, “Those weren’t things that I was privy to," per The New York Times.

<p>Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty</p> Ivanka Trump arrives to New York State Supreme Court

Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty

Ivanka Trump arrives to New York State Supreme Court

At the time, the New York attorney general insisted that Ivanka "clearly was involved" in securing loans for her father's company.

As a result of the case, Donald was ordered to pay $354.9 million in penalties. In addition, the judge demanded more than $4 million each from his adult sons, who are barred from holding top leadership positions at New York businesses for two years — and $1 million from ex-Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, who cannot hold an officer or director position for three years and is permanently barred from having financial control over a New York business.

Related: Why NBC Didn't Want Ivanka Trump to Replace Her Father on The Apprentice, According to New Book

MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images Donald Trump and Ivanka Trump
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images Donald Trump and Ivanka Trump

Ivanka has taken a step back from politics since her father launched his third presidential campaign, stating in 2022, "I am choosing to prioritize my young children and the private life we are creating as a family."

In March, a source in Ivanka’s social circle told PEOPLE that she has "politics totally in the rearview mirror and so this time around, even if her dad is the leading Republican candidate, she basically doesn't care."

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 

In May, Donald was found guilty of 34 felony charges in Manhattan. The first-ever criminal trial of a former president determined that he falsified business records in order to conceal a conspiracy to corrupt the 2016 election.

After the jury revealed its verdict, Ivanka issued a comment on her Instagram Story. “I love my father, and I love my country. Today, I am pained for both. I appreciate the voices across the political spectrum expressing support and concern," she wrote.

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.

  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next

Latest stories

  • The world must prepare for President Michelle Obama

    The 2024 US Presidential race intensifies. Speculation abounds over potential replacements for President Joe Biden amid increasing pressure from his party and the media to step aside after a jaw-dropping, catastrophic debate against Donald Trump last week. Among the names circulating, a game-changer is emerging: Michelle Obama. Could this be America’s worst nightmare?

  • When Ms ‘Malaysia’ visits Malaysia: American tourist gets warm welcome from locals awed by unique name (VIDEO)

    KUALA LUMPUR, July 5 — An American tourist decided to visit Malaysia for a special reason: Malaysia also happens to be h...

  • Embattled Biden makes latest gaffe saying he’s the ‘first Black woman to serve with a Black president’

    President’s July 4 blunder comes as he desperately tries to claw back confidence among voters and party members after last week’s debate flop

  • Conservatives Routed in Worst Election Result for 200 Years

    LONDON—The Conservatives, the world’s winningest political party, were booted out of power in dramatic style on Thursday after 14 years of chaotic and divisive rule.The Labour Party had secured a landslide victory, ending an era of Conservative rule over Britain that stretches back to 2010; the year that the iPad and Instagram were launched and Lady Gaga wore that meat dress to the MTV music awards.In that time, the Conservatives have cycled through five leaders, each of them dragging the party

  • Putrajaya submits diplomatic protest note to UN rejecting Manila’s bid to reclaim Sabah after Paris court rule

    Malaysia submits diplomatic note to UN Secretary-General António Guterres rejecting the Philippines’ claim to Sabah r...

  • Beijing is laughing at the West’s weakness

    Russian aggression in Ukraine poses a threat to world peace and stability. China provides material support for Russia’s actions. All this is entirely clear. In Beijing, immediately after a meeting with Xi Jinping in April this year, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that “Russia would struggle to sustain its assault on Ukraine without China’s support”. This included selling huge quantities of machine tools and micro-electronics that would be used in the Russian defence industry.

  • Opinion: What Britain’s first Asian prime minister meant to my family

    The defeat of the Conservative Party in the UK election ends Rishi Sunak’s two-year premiership. Does it also sour the story of Britain’s first Asian prime minister, asks Sunder Katwala.

  • Seven moments over 14 years that destroyed the Conservative government

    The Tories have lost the 2024 general election with the worst results in the party's history. Here are the key moments that brought them down.

  • Van Jones Reveals ‘Behind The Scenes’ Moves That Could End Biden Campaign

    The CNN commentator detailed the “big conversation” taking place right now among Democratic insiders.

  • The Head of NASA Is Being Awfully Catty About China's Amazing New Moon Samples

    China recently became the first country to ever return samples taken from the far side of the Moon, a historic mission that could have profound implications on our understanding of its evolution and ability to host human life. But thanks to a law called the Wolf Amendment, which was enacted by the US government in […]

  • Zelensky U-turns as he invites Russia to attend peace summit without giving up land

    Volodymyr Zelensky has invited Russia to the next peace summit despite previously saying it could only join if it relinquished land in Ukraine.

  • Here’s what would happen if Biden were to drop out of the presidential race

    CNN’s Brian Todd explains the process for picking a new Democratic presidential nominee, should President Biden decide to end his bid for reelection

  • Russia is using devastating 'meat assault' attacks to find out where Ukraine's firepower is hidden: report

    Russia is throwing troops into high-casualty attacks for marginal tactical gains.

  • ‘I’ve lost my job and my house, but my wife and I are worth £650m – how can we pay less tax?’

    Rishi Sunak, 44, finds himself in a bind. After a highly successful career in the City of London, followed by a brief but eventful spell in politics, he has suffered a serious demotion and been evicted from his home.

  • HR Ministry to file MACC report after A-G’s report uncovers irregularities in HRD Corp

    KUALA LUMPUR, July 5 — The Human Resources Ministry (Kesuma) will lodge a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Comm...

  • Lebanon's Hezbollah rains 200 rockets on Israel as Gaza war rages

    Lebanon's Hezbollah launched more than 200 rockets and drones at Israeli army positions on Thursday, escalating tensions between the two adversaries amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.After months of deadlocked Gaza ceasefire efforts, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he agreed to send a delegation for talks aimed at securing the release of hostages seized in Hamas's October 7 attack that sparked the war.The announcement, which came a day after Hamas said it had "ideas" on halting the nearly nine-month conflict, followed a phone call between Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden."The leaders discussed the recent response received from Hamas" and "the President welcomed the Prime Minister's decision&nbsp;to authorise his negotiators to engage with US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators in an effort to close out the deal," the White House said.Israel launched a military offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip on October 7, in response to an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist militant group on its territory.The next day Hezbollah, in support of its ally Hamas, opened a front on Israel's northern border with Lebanon, and the two sides have since exchanged near-daily cross-border fire.Hezbollah said it fired more than 200 rockets and "explosive drones" at army positions in northern Israel and the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights in retaliation for an Israeli strike that killed one of the Iran-backed group's commanders.Air raid sirens blared across northern Israel in the morning, and an AFP correspondent witnessed rockets crossing the frontier that were mostly intercepted by Israeli air defences but sparked wildfires.A military source said later a soldier was killed by a rocket fired into northern Israel.- Fighting in Gaza City -The Gaza war broke out after Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.The militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza including 42 the army says are dead.In response, Netanyahu vowed to "crush" Hamas and Israel's military launched an offensive that has killed at least 38,011 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.Gaza's civil defence agency said seven people were killed Thursday in Israeli strikes, including five in a school in Gaza City, in the north of the besieged territory.Fighting raged in the city's Shujaiya neighbourhood and in Rafah, on the southern border with Egypt, where an Israeli evacuation order raised fears of a major new offensive.Since the order was issued on Monday, tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled eastern areas of Rafah and nearby Khan Yunis.The United Nations says 1.9 million people are thought to be displaced in Gaza, and that around nine in every 10 people in the territory have been uprooted at least once since the war broke out."Behind these numbers, there are people... that have fears and grievances. And they had probably dreams and hopes; the less and less, I fear today, unfortunately," said Andrea De Domenico, head of the UN humanitarian office in the Palestinian territories."People who in the last nine months have been moved around like pawns in a board game."- Evacuation order -The United Nations says up to 250,000 people were affected by Israel's order to evacuate 117 square kilometres (45 square miles) -- equivalent to one-third of Gaza's territory.The Israel-Hezbollah border clashes have killed at least 496 people in Lebanon, most of them fighters but also including 95 civilians, according to an AFP tally.Israeli authorities say at least 16 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed on their side of the UN-patrolled border.The Gaza war at the heart of the violence has meanwhile raged on, with gun battles, air strikes and shelling rocking Gaza City&nbsp;for an eight straight day.Israeli troops "destroyed tunnel routes in the area and eliminated dozens of terrorists in close-quarters combat with tank fire, and in aerial strikes," the military said.- 'Maelstrom of human misery' -Israel has faced an international outcry over the soaring civilian death toll, punishing siege and mass destruction in Gaza.The UN humanitarian coordinator for Gaza, Sigrid Kaag, this week called for an end to the "maelstrom of human misery".Netanyahu has insisted Israel will destroy Hamas and bring home the remaining hostages.Biden, under growing domestic pressure over Washington's support for Israel, in late May outlined a roadmap for a six-week truce and exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners.There has been little progress since, but Hamas said Wednesday it was communicating with officials in Qatar and Egypt as well as Turkey with an eye to ending the conflict.Hamas said its Qatar-based political chief Ismail Haniyeh had "made contact with the mediator brothers in Qatar and Egypt about the ideas that the movement is discussing with them with the aim of reaching an agreement".Netanyahu's office said Wednesday that "Israel is evaluating the (Hamas) remarks and will convey its reply to the mediators".The main stumbling block so far has been Hamas's demand for a permanent end to the fighting, which Netanyahu and his far-right coalition partners strongly reject.burs-dv/kir

  • Biden’s labor secretary laughs off 25th Amendment question

    Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su laughed off a question about President Biden’s Cabinet members invoking the 25th Amendment in an interview on Fox News following the latest jobs report Friday. “Has there been any conversation among the Cabinet members about invoking the 25th Amendment?” Fox Business’s Edward Lawrence asked Su in an interview that aired…

  • Goodbye, Galloway. This was a triumph for Israel

    British politics has hardly covered itself in glory in recent years. After the shame of the Corbyn years was punctured by the glorious Tory victory of 2019, we were subjected to a veritable gallery of disgrace: soaring immigration, Covid authoritarianism, Partygate, the Truss-Kwarteng interregnum, Gaza fanaticism. But the true nadir was the election of George Galloway in Rochdale.

  • Disney heiress vows to stop Democratic donations until Biden stands aside

    Abigail Disney, a long-standing donor to the Democrats, warned that the GOP would win in November if a change of leadership was not made

  • Ukraine’s new F-16 fighter jets will be destroyed as soon as they arrive

    In a brutal and terrifying three days, Russia has wreaked havoc on the tiny, battered Ukrainian air force – lofting drones to surveil the air force’s front-line airfields and then firing ballistic missiles to destroy hard-to-replace warplanes.