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."

Michael Cohen, under questioning from state attorneys, testified it was his job to help Trump look as rich as he wanted to.

"I was tasked by Mr. Trump to increase the total assets based upon a number that he arbitrarily elected, and my responsibility -- along with Allen Weisselberg -- predominantly was to reverse engineer the various different asset classes, increase those assets in order to achieve the number that Mr. Trump had tasked us with," Cohen said, referring to former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg.

Cohen joined the Trump Organization in 2007 as executive vice president and special counsel to Trump, putting him "directly under Mr. Trump" in the corporate hierarchy, Cohen said.

"I reported and only handled work for Mr. Trump and so I was his special counsel. Whatever issues he had, whatever created ire for him, he would bring it to me to resolve," Cohen said.

"So the only person who asked you to perform work was Donald J. Trump?" state attorney Colleen Faherty asked.

"Correct," Cohen responded.

Cohen affirmed his involvement in preparing Trump's statements of financial condition and told the judge those documents were "shared with third parties," including insurance brokers.

Michael Cohen, hunched slightly on the witness stand, began his testimony by outlining the federal charges to which he pleaded guilty and served prison time -- including tax evasion and lying to Congress -- as Trump leaned back in his chair with his arms folded across his chest.

Once Trump's self-described bulldog, Cohen has not shared a room with Trump in five years, he said prior to his testimony.

As he recounted his criminal history, Cohen invoked the names of Stormy Daniels and Karen MacDougal, two women who in 2016 were paid to keep quiet about long-denied affairs with Trump. Defense attorney Chris Kise moved to strike the answer but the judge overruled the objection.

Colleen Faherty, an attorney with the state attorney general's office, asked Cohen if his crimes occurred while he was employed by Trump, to which Cohen responded "Yes" and affirmed his employer was "Donald J. Trump."

Donald Trump's lawyers made their fifth motion for a directed verdict in the former president's fraud trial in a filing late Friday that appears destined to be rejected.

Judge Arthur Engoron all but guaranteed he would deny the request to end the trial when Trump's lawyer Chris Kise announced his plans to file the motion earlier this week.

"There is no way I am going to grant that," Engoron said on Tuesday. "You'd be wasting your time."

Trump's lawyers nevertheless filed their motion late Friday.

"In sum, there was no fraud, there were no victims, there has simply been no harm or actionable misconduct, and the Court must and should follow the law of the case regarding the scope of the claims at issue," Trump's lawyers wrote.

In the filing, Trump's attorneys targeted New York Attorney General Letitia James' request to fine Trump nearly $400 million for ill-gotten gains by arguing that the state failed to demonstrate that Trump and his sons intended to defraud his lenders or that they engaged in a conspiracy to commit fraud.

"Not a single defense witness supported the notion of any alleged conspiracy, and in fact such testimony refuted fully the existence of the same," the lawyers wrote, calling Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen, who testified about the alleged conspiracy, a "demonstrable, perpetual, and serial liar."

They also argued that James failed to prove that any of Trump's alleged misrepresentations would have materially changed the loans he received from his lenders, writing that the alleged misstatements had "no actual significance" to Trump's lenders.

All four of Trump's previous motions for a directed verdict to end the case for lack of evidence have been rejected by Judge Engoron.