Trump civil fraud case: Judge fines Trump $354M, says frauds 'shock the conscience'

Donald Trump used his inflated financial statements to convince journalists about his net worth, to lower his insurance premiums, and even to support his bid to purchase the Buffalo Bills football team, according to Michael Cohen.

Cohen described how the Trump Organization would grant external parties only limited access to the documents themselves, often presenting them during video calls -- rather than handing out the document for external parties to keep -- in the process of demonstrating Trump's net worth.

For example, Cohen described using the documents in a meeting with a journalist from real estate news site "The Real Deal" to "create the story about how much Trump was actually worth," Cohen said.

According to Cohen, Trump Organization executives used Trump's financial statements in meetings with insurance companies to obtain lower premiums, and Trump would occasionally attend these meetings to help move the process along.

"About three quarters of the way through the meeting, Mr. Trump would then come in, and there would be an extended conversion about his net worth, and that he was richer than the insurance companies," Cohen testified, adding that Trump's drop-in to the meeting was pre-planned.

Trump's financial statement also proved vital when Trump attempted to get a line of credit for a 2014 bid to purchase the Buffalo Bills, according to Cohen.

"We can all agree that Mr. Trump never owned the Buffalo Bills," Judge Engoron remarked.

Sitting at the witness stand in a white dress shirt and sport coat, Cohen swapped his reading glasses on and off as he studied financial statements presented to him.

Feet away at the counsel table, Trump leaned forward to study the real-time transcript of Cohen's testimony while actively whispering and passing notes between his lawyers Alina Habba and Chris Kise.

Often leaning to speak with his lawyers on either side of him, Trump appeared actively engaged throughout Cohen's testimony since the mid-day break.

While Cohen testified steadily and confidently for most of his early-afternoon testimony, he at times spoke vaguely and struggled to offer specific firsthand knowledge. When asked about Trump's adult children, Ivanka, Don Jr. and Eric, he initially described them as involved in the process of inflating specific assets before walking back his testimony.

"I did not observe them specifically engaging in conversation," about that, Cohen acknowledged.

According to Michael Cohen, the process of "reverse engineering" Donald Trump's 2011 financial statement began with a phone call.

"Mr. Trump would like to see you," Trump's executive assistant told Cohen, according to his testimony today.

Cohen testified that he then personally met with Trump and former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg to begin the process of inflating Trump's financial statement.

"I am actually not worth 4.5 billion. I am really worth six," Trump directed him and Weisselberg, according to Cohen.

Following that meeting, he and Weisselberg engaged in a multi-day process of marking up Trump's financial statement with red ink to eventually increase Trump's total net worth to Trump's "desired number," Cohen said.

Apart from the marked-up document, which Cohen said was scanned, he left behind no contemporaneous notes, text messages, or emails about the process.

"What is the highest price per square foot achieved in the city," Cohen described about the process to determine comparable properties to value Trump assets. "We would use those numbers to inflate these numbers."

Minutes after Michael Cohen alleged he was tasked with reverse engineering Trump Organization financial statements, Donald Trump continued his attacks on his former lawyer while exiting the courtroom during a break in the trial.

"His record is a horrible one. All you have to do is ask the Southern District of New York," Trump said in reference to Cohen's 2018 guilty plea on charges related to his role in making hush payments to two woman who claimed to have long-denied affairs with Trump.

"He is not a credible witness," Trump said.

During Cohen's testimony, Trump also took to social media to post flattering quotes Cohen gave to news outlets about Trump in 2011 and 2016.

"He's more like a patriarch, a mentor. These qualities make him very endearing to me, which is why I am so fiercely loyal to him and committed to protecting him at all costs," Cohen told the New York Times in 2016 -- which was posted by Trump on Truth Social minutes after Cohen began his testimony.

The former president told reporters he wasn't concerned about Cohen being on the stand.

"We're not worried at all about his testimony," Trump said.

Cohen, exiting court separately during the break, quipped that seeing Trump again after five years was a "heck of a reunion."