Michael Cohen says his appearance at Donald Trump's civil business fraud trial in New York Tuesday was the first time he had seen his former boss in five years—and it was a "heck of a reunion." The former Trump lawyer and "fixer" is one of the trial's key witnesses and he delivered what the Guardian calls "stunning testimony" on allegedly fraudulent inflation of the value of Trump's assets. Cohen said Trump asked him to "increase the total assets based upon a number that he arbitrary selected." He said his responsibility, along with Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, was "reverse-engineer the various different asset classes, increase those assets, in order to achieve a number that Mr. Trump had tasked us."
Asked what the number was, Cohen said, "Whatever number Mr Trump told us to." He said Trump would look at financial documents, and say, "I'm actually not worth $4.5 billion, I'm really worth more like 6 (billion)," per Reuters. Weisselberg testified earlier in the trial that he doesn't remember any meetings with Cohen and Trump about Trump's net worth, CNN reports. Trump has denied inflating the value of his assets to get favorable terms from banks and insurers, arguing that the assets were actually undervalued, the AP reports. Outside the court, Trump slammed Cohen as a "proven liar" who had served time in prison for crimes including lying to Congress.
"I'm not worried at all about his testimony," Trump said. "You see what his record is. He's not a credible witness." Trump, who dropped a $500 million lawsuit against Cohen earlier this month, added: "We'll see how it ends. It's not going to end good," per NBC News. Justice Arthur Engoron ruled last month that Trump had committed fraud and the New York trial is largely concerned with damages, which could include an order banning the former president and sons Donald Jr. and Eric from doing business in the state, reports Reuters. (On Friday, Engoron fined Trump $5,000 for violating a gag order in the case.)
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