Longtime Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney, a defendant in the case, has taken the stand.

McConney testified that he was responsible for Trump's statement of financial condition from 2011 until 2017, when the responsibility was passed on to another employee.

But McConney was quick to differentiate his role from that of the organization's accounting firm, Mazar's USA.

"We as the Trump Organization didn't prepare the statement," McConney said.

Unlike most witnesses who generally aren't allowed to hear other witnesses testify, McConney -- as a defendant in the case -- is entitled to be in the courtroom for the entire trial. However, today is the first time he has appeared.

Pressing Mazars USA accountant Donald Bender on how often he asked the Trump Organization for appraisals of the former president's assets during the years he worked on Trump's account, defense lawyers attempted to portray Bender as neglecting to do his job compiling Trump's financial reports.

"I didn't know that the Trump Organization had any access to appraisals they did not give me," Bender testified.

The longtime Trump accountant struggled to articulate how often he made requests for appraisals, and defense counsel Clifford Robert drilled into the fact that those requests appear to never have been made in writing to Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney.

"You don't really know what you asked Jeff McConney," Robert told Bender.

Bender was also asked about Trump's three adult children, who all previously served as executives in the Trump Organization, and whether they were involved with Trump's statement of financial condition.

The accountant said that -- apart from a brief conversation he once had with Eric Trump -- Eric, Don Jr. and Ivanka Trump were not involved in issuing Trump's financial statements.

On redirect examination, state attorneys briefly asked questions of Bender suggesting that the defense's questions had been based on an outdated accounting standard.

That concluded Bender's testimony.

Trump attorney Jesus Suarez, in his cross-examination of longtime Trump accountant Donald Bender, is attempting to ask Bender about each year's compilation of Trump's statement of financial condition.

In response, facing the possibility of hours of repetitive questions, Judge Engoron said he would limit Suarez to an hour and a half of cross-examination.

Defense lawyer Clifford Robert is also expected to question Bender.

The defense's cross-examination of longtime Trump accountant Donald Bender has resumed.

New York Attorney General Letitia James is attending court today, but Eric Trump of the Trump Organization is absent from the gallery.

When Donald Trump attended over the first three days of the trial, the gallery was packed -- but without him in attendance, it's now roughly half full.

Cushman & Wakefield executive David McArdle, who was hired to appraise the value of 71 undeveloped residential units at the Trump National Golf Club in Westchester County, New York, testified that he also conducted multiple appraisals for conservation easements at the property in 2014 and 2015.

Signing a conservation easement would allow the Trump Organization to give up their development rights and treat the difference in property value as a charitable donation, according to the New York attorney general.

By giving up the right to develop the 71 residential units, McArdle found that the donation was worth $43 million, according to an April 2014 appraisal. A later appraisal McArdle conducted in 2015 landed on a similar valuation of $45.2 million.

But Trump's financial statements from those years appear to ignore the appraisals, valuing the land from the undeveloped units at $101 million, according to documents entered into evidence.

"Based on the supporting data, the only source for the increase in the number of units and profit per unit were telephone conversations with Eric Trump," the New York attorney general alleged in her complaint.

McArdle also testified that he was consulted to appraise Seven Springs, a New York estate Trump purchased for $7.5 million in 1995.

To value the property, which could be subdivided into 24 to 26 residential lots, McArdle testified that he toured the site, consulted a local expert, and spoke with Eric Trump on multiple occasions.

"He had a very high opinion of the property, which didn't surprise me," McArdle said.

His appraisal ultimately determined the total value for the lots in 2014 was $30-$50 million, McArdle said.

But the New York attorney general alleges that appraisal was ignored in Trump's 2014 financial statement, in favor of a "false and misleading" value of $161 million for a portion of the undeveloped lots.