Michael Cohen returns to continue his testimony in the $250 million fraud trial of Donald Trump in New York

Donald Trump and his fixer-turned-enemy Michael Cohen will appear in court again on Wednesday after a dramatic day of testimony in which the disbarred lawyer detailed how he was told to blow up the former president’s assets.

Cohen, who cut ties with Trump five years ago, will take the stand for a second day for cross-examination by lawyers seeking to undermine his credibility.

Cohen took the stand on Tuesday, testifying that Trump “arbitrarily” inflated the value of the Trump Organization’s real estate assets to secure favorable insurance premiums.

He told the court he falsified the financial statements so that the property’s value matched “whatever number Mr. Trump told us.”

Michael Cohen will take the stand for a second day Wednesday to face more cross-examination by lawyers seeking to undermine his credibility.

Michael Cohen looks at former President Donald Trump as he is questioned Tuesday by Colleen Faherty, a lawyer from the attorney general’s office

Speaking to the court, he said: ‘I was instructed by Mr. Trump to increase total assets based on a number he arbitrarily selected and my responsibility along with Allen Weisselberg (former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization) was reverse engineering the different different asset classes, increase those assets to get to the number that Mr. Trump told us to do.”

Cohen testified that Trump would call him and Weisselberg up and say, for example, “He would look at the total assets (on the statement of financial condition) and he would say that I’m not actually worth four and a half billion dollars, I’m actually worth more than six.

“He instructed Allen and I would go back to Allen’s office and come back after we accomplished the desired goal.”

Early in his testimony, Cohen acknowledged his own troubles with the law in 2018, confirming his guilt on eight charges related to campaign finance violations and lying to Congress that year, which led to him receiving a three-year prison sentence.

When asked who he worked for during his crimes, Cohen replied: “Donald J. Trump.”

He admitted that he “admitted my complicity” in the first $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels weeks before the 2016 election.

Cohen said there was a “second campaign finance violation” involving the $150,000 paid to Karen McDougal for her silence about her relations with Trump.

Eric Trump (left) was seen arriving in court with his father on Tuesday before taking his seat in the public gallery

According to Cohen, he was “tasked with reviewing documents to ensure Mr. Trump was protected.”

The insider testimony could support New York Attorney General Letitia James’ argument that Trump, his company and some of his executives have inflated real estate values. The case could disrupt Trump’s business empire.

Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has denied wrongdoing and defended his property valuations, calling the case a “fraud” and a political witch hunt.

He and his lawyers have repeatedly called Cohen a “liar” and are likely to use his admitted history of deceit to cast doubt on his testimony.

Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to a campaign finance violation and lying to Congress about Trump’s business dealings in Russia, which he testified Tuesday he did at Trump’s direction.

During about a half-hour of cross-examination on Tuesday, Trump attorney Alina Habba asked Cohen about the statement he made in court in connection with his guilty plea to label him a convicted felon and serial liar.

During a testy cross-examination, Cohen, a disbarred attorney, even raised his own legal concerns, responding to some questions with “asked and answered!”

Before the trial began on October 2, Judge Arthur Engoron found that Trump had fraudulently inflated his wealth and ordered the dissolution of companies that control the crown jewels of his real estate portfolio, including Trump Tower in Manhattan. That ruling is on hold while Trump appeals.

The lawsuit is largely about damages.

James is seeking at least $250 million in fines, a permanent ban against Trump and his sons Donald Jr. and Eric to run businesses in New York and a five-year commercial real estate ban against Trump and the Trump Organization.