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

Former Trump Organization controller and co-defendant Jeffrey McConney is set to return to the witness stand to conclude his testimony this morning.

When he returned to the stand as a witness for the defense yesterday, he testified that he relied on the firm's accountants at Mazars USA to put together the statements of financial condition that are at the center of the case, continuing what appears to be the defense's strategy of placing responsibility on outside accountants.

"Whatever he asked for, we would do," McConney said of longtime Mazars accountant Donald Bender.

McConney is the only witness scheduled to testify before the court takes an extended Thanksgiving break. Once his testimony concludes, the court is set to adjourn until it resumes on Monday following the holiday.

The Trump Organization's longtime controller testified that he overvalued Ivanka Trump's apartment in her father's statement of financial condition before correcting the mistake after it was flagged.

New York Attorney General Letitia James alleges that a penthouse apartment rented by Ivanka Trump was valued in Donald Trump's financial statement at $45 million in 2014 and 2015, despite the apartment's rental agreement including an option to purchase the apartment for $14 million.

From 2016 onward, the value of the penthouse in Trump's statements dropped back down the actual buyout price of $14 million, "per rental agreement."

Asked about the change during his testimony today, McConney acknowledged the correction, claiming he did not know about the provision in the rental agreement.

McConney said that once outside accountant Donald Bender of Mazars USA flagged the issue, he promptly made the change in Trump's financial statement.

McConney concluded his testimony for the day and is set to return to the witness stand Tuesday morning.

With an overwhelming number of entities to track in addition to numerous other responsibilities, the Trump Organization's longtime controller Jeffrey McConney said he relied on outside accountants to put together Trump's statements of financial condition.

While the statement took up a portion of his time between July and October each year, McConney testified that he otherwise spent "very little time" on the financial statements that underpin the attorney general's case.

The descriptions of each entity in the statements, and the disclaimers, largely remained the same year after year, according to McConney.

"A lot of this was Gerald Rosenblum's writing," he said about the section describing Trump Tower, referring to a former outside accountant.

"Whose words are those?" defense attorney Jesus Suarez said about a disclaimer that said that the value of "Donald J. Trump's worldwide reputation" was not considered in the statement.

"Mazars," McConney responded.

He added that Trump would make any change that Mazars recommended and largely followed the lead of then-Mazars accountant Donald Bender when modifying the statement.

"If [Bender] had items that he needed on the statement to change, we made the change," McConney said.

Longtime Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney, a defendant in the attorney general's case, denied withholding any documents from the company's outside accountants -- appearing to contradict testimony from Mazars USA accountant Donald Bender.

"We provided him everything he needed," McConney said, adding that Bender could request any document he wanted from the Trump Organization.

McConney, testifying for the defense, added that Bender also could directly communicate with individuals in the Trump Organization to directly ask questions during the process of organizing Trump's financial statements that are at the center of the case.

"Bender would come in and talk to anyone he wanted," McConney said.

When Bender testified last month during the state's case, he said that he directly asked McConney if the company had more appraisals, to which McConney responded, "That's all we have."

"They were not giving us all the documents that we needed, potentially, to compile the compilation," Bender testified.

Asked about the allegation on the witness stand, McConney denied he withheld anything from Bender.

"Did you ever hide anything from Donald Bender?" defense attorney Jesus Suarez asked.

"No," McConney responded.