Ex-Trump Org exec downplays key fraud claim against ex-president

Exaggerating the size of Donald Trump’s Manhattan penthouse on financial documents amounted to just a minor mistake, his longtime finance chief testified Tuesday — waving off one of the key claims in the New York attorney general’s fraud case against the ex-president.

Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg acknowledged that a 1994 document listed the Trump Tower triplex at its true size of 10,996 square feet — rather than the bloated 30,000 square feet that Trump, 77, allegedly falsely claimed for years on financial statements.

But Weisselberg said the misstated value of the apartment was “de minimis” — a Latin term frequently used in law to mean that something is too trivial to warrant consideration.

“I never even thought about the apartment,” Weisselberg testified in Manhattan Supreme Court during trial over New York Attorney General Letitia James’ $250 million fraud lawsuit against Trump.

“It was not something that was that important to me when looking at a $6 billion, $5 billion net worth,” Weisselberg noted.

James claims in her case that overstating the size of the pad added between $100 million and $200 million to its value.

The allegation is one example of what the AG claims was a decade-long pattern of pumping up the value of Trump assets on yearly Statements of Financial Condition in order for the 45th president to get a leg up on loan and insurance terms — and to climb Forbes’ list of billionaires.

The testimony came out after Weisselberg — who is also a defendant in James’ case — was shown an email attachment to the document, signed by Trump himself, that listed the apartment’s true size.

Weisselberg told the court he remembered seeing the email, but not the attachment — and either way, he didn’t give too much thought to the size of the unit, since its value paled in comparison to the total net worth of his real estate tycoon boss.

The exec explained that he only found out about the size inflation of the apartment when a Forbes magazine reporter was investigating it in 2016.

Weisselberg said he denied the claim to the outlet at first, but that he didn’t remember if he had anyone internally look into whether it was true.

The site went on to publish a May 2017 article called “Donald Trump Has Been Lying About the Size of His Penthouse.”

Weisselberg said he didn’t remember whether he went over the financial statements with Trump before they were filed – and any review the one-time CFO did was general “from a 30,000-foot level,” he testified.

But Weisselberg told the court he did apply more scrutiny on property descriptions, since these were “very important” to Trump as a “bit of a marketing piece” to dazzle banks.

In a May deposition, Weisselberg said that Trump would micromanage these property descriptions, for instance, changing an adjective from “beautiful” to “magnificent.”

Weisselberg, 76, was a key witness at the Manhattan criminal trial against the Trump Org that ended with a guilty verdict and a $1.6 million fine against the real estate empire in January.

He agreed to turn on his longtime former employer as part of a plea deal, in which he copped to tax fraud for skirting income tax by failing to report his full compensation for 15 years. He was set free from a short stint in jail in April.

The longtime Trump lieutenant is owed $2 million in severance – almost the same amount he will have to cough up as part of the plea agreement to repay back taxes, penalties and interest.

On Tuesday, Weisselberg said the prosecution he faced had “taken its toll” on himself and his family.

Trump acknowledged in his own April deposition that Weisselberg has “gone through hell and back.”

The trial is slated to last through December and the AG witness list includes Trump and children Ivanka, Eric and Donald Trump Jr.

Former Trump lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen is listed as two witnesses after Weisselberg and could end up on the stand this week.

With Post wires