"One thing I know a lot about is the legal definition of fraud," Justice Arthur Engeron said as he gaveled court into session prior to the start of opening statements.

Engoron opened the proceedings after allowing cameras in to document the scene in the courtroom: Trump, arms folded, flanked by his legal team; Engeron on the bench; and throngs of reporters and spectators in the gallery.

"I've promised to do my best despite my lame attempts at humor," Engeron said in a brief opening statement. "I take my job very seriously."

The trial is expected to last through Dec. 22, Engeron said, and suggested he would attempt to keep a low profile after today.

"For the next three months, I hope the only words I will mutter are 'Sustained,' 'Overruled,' and 'Let's take a 10-minute break,'" he said.

Opening statements are underway in former President Trump's $250 million fraud trial.

Trump is seated between his attorneys Clifford Robert, Alina Habba and Christopher Kise.

Trump and his co-defendants face a bench trial, meaning that the sole arbiter of the case is Judge Arthur Engoron instead of a jury.

Former President Trump has taken a seat in the courtroom for the start of the trial.

"The crime is against me," he told reporters outside the courtroom before he made his way inside.

He denounced the case in now-familiar terms, criticizing state Attorney General Letitia James as she sat inside the courtroom.

Trump also accused Judge Arthur Engoron of failing to account for the full value of his real estate portfolio, asserting his Mar-a-Lago estate is worth "50 to 100 times more" than the judge's decision for partial summary judgment said last week.

"We have other properties, the same thing. So he devalued everything," Trump said. "We have among the greatest properties in the world. and I have to go through this for political reasons."

Engoron decided Trump's statements of financial condition were fraudulent, but Trump said, "We have a clause in the contract that says, essentially, buyer beware."

Former President Trump, speaking to reporters on his arrival at the lower Manhattan courthouse, said the trial is a witch hunt resulting from his standing in the presidential polls.

"This is a continuation of the greatest political witch hunt of all time," he told reporters outside the courtroom.

Trump said he is innocent of the accusations and that his portfolio has a much higher value than what the attorney general alleges.

Asked about her involvement in her father's statements of financial condition that the judge has already determined fraudulently overvalued his real estate and inflated his net worth, Ivaka Trump said she had no knowledge of them.

"I would assume he had a personal financial statement," Ivanka Trump said. "Those weren't things that I was privy to."

Regarding a lease she had for a penthouse apartment in Trump Park Avenue that included an option to buy for $8.5 million, the New York attorney general's office said Trump's statement financial condition claimed that units in the building were selling for $20.8 million -- two and a half times as much.

Asked by state lawyer Louis Solomon whether she knew about that discrepancy, Ivanka Trump responded, "I wasn't involved in his statement of financial condition so I can't say what it took into account or didn't take into account."

Solomon pressed her about the documents, asking, "Did you know whether he had personal financial statements, Donald J. Trump?" Solomon asked.

"I'm not involved in his personal financial statements. I didn't know about his personal statements, per se, other than what you've showed me," Ivanka Trump responded.

"Did you have any role in preparing Donald J. Trump's statements of financial condition?"

"Not that I'm aware of," she replied.