Here’s part of Michael Cohen’s potentially damning video deposition

A portion of Michael Cohen’s potentially damning video deposition was made public Monday as the New York Attorney General’s $250 million fraud case against former President Donald Trump kicked off in a Manhattan courtroom.

The video clip of Cohen’s sworn testimony was played for Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron during opening remarks from the AG’s office, at the civil trial where the ex-president is accused of inflating his net worth on financial documents to get an edge in business and save hundreds of millions of dollars.

Cohen – Trump’s former personal attorney and “fixer” – described how the real estate mogul would call him and Allen Weisselberg, the former Trump Organization CFO, into his office and ask them to boost his worth – in part so he could rank higher on the Forbes billionaires list.

“Let’s say it said he was worth $6 billion,” Cohen said during the April 28 deposition. “Well, he wanted to be higher on the Forbes list, and he then said, ‘I’m actually not worth 6 billion. I’m worth 7. In fact, I think it’s actually now worth 8 with everything that’s going on.’”

“Allen and I were tasked with taking the assets, increasing each of those asset classes in order to accommodate that $8 billion number,” Cohen said in the video.

Trump – who attended the first day of trial, prompting protesters to show up outside court – grimaced as he watched onetime ally’s testimony play in the packed courtroom.

The recorded testimony was released alongside brief snippets of video depositions from the 45th president and his sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr., as well as Weisselberg – in which they each denied involvement in the company’s accounting.

Eric – the executive vice president of Trump Org – said in his March 7 deposition that he didn’t recall being involved in preparing the statements of financial condition that his dad is alleged to have lied on from 2011 to 2021.

In brief segments of the videos of Don Jr. and Weisselberg’s sworn testimony – from July 28, 2022 and May 12, 2023 respectively – they each said they didn’t know anything about GAAP, or the Generally Accepted Accounting Practices, standards that are used to prepare and report financial statements.

Meanwhile in Trump’s deposition clip, taken on April 13, he said that Weisselberg handled GAAP for the company.

A lawyer in the AG’s office Kevin Wallace, told the judge that Trump, 77, and the co-defendants lied “year after year after year” about his wealth.

Trump’s lawyers argued in opening remarks that the AG’s case was resting on the word of Cohen – a convicted felon – and that his testimony wasn’t credible.

They also claimed that Trump didn’t carry out a fraud that damaged banks and insurers but rather these companies made millions off of the ex-president – who paid back all the loans he took out.

After opening statements concluded, the first witness, Donald Bender, a partner at accounting firm Mazar’s, was called to testify about his company’s time handling the Trump Org account.