Michael Cohen Gets His Revenge on Donald Trump

Donald Trump's former fixer Michael Cohen took the stand Tuesday in the former president's civil fraud trial, where the two men came together for the first time in five years.

Cohen and Trump appeared face-to-face in a Manhattan courtroom as Cohen testified against his ex-boss in connection with the New York state attorney general's $250 million lawsuit accusing Trump of falsely inflating his assets to deceive lenders, insurers and others.

Cohen's testimony has been highly anticipated in the case. Since publicly turning on Trump five years ago, he has gone from Trump's lawyer and ally who vowed to "take a bullet" for the former president to one of his most vocal critics. He had initially been scheduled to testify last week, but his court appearance was delayed because of a medical issue.

During his testimony, Cohen provided a damning account of Trump's actions, telling the court under oath that he lied to Congress under Trump's direction and for his benefit. He also said that Trump had "arbitrarily" set his net worth numbers.

"I was asked to increase the total assets based upon a number that he arbitrarily elected," Cohen said about Trump's 2011 financial statement. He added that it was his responsibility to reverse engineer various assets "in order to achieve a number that Mr. Trump asked" for.

Ahead of his testimony, Cohen told reporters outside the courthouse that he was "looking forward to the reunion" and insisted that his appearance was not the culmination of a bitter, yearslong feud between himself and his old boss.

"This is not about Donald Trump versus Michael Cohen or Michael Cohen versus Donald Trump," Cohen said. "This is about accountability, plain and simple."

Trump, on the other hand, did not hesitate to attack his former close associate turned foe, calling Cohen a "liar" to the press and saying that he only took the stand "to get a better deal for himself."

"He has a horrible record," Trump said Tuesday. "It's not going to end up very good for him. We're not worried at all about his testimony."

Trump was seen hunched forward in his seat as Cohen delivered his testimony, watching closely and whispering to his lawyers at times. Cohen glanced quickly at the defense table as he walked up to the stand.

While Cohen and Trump have not seen each other in five years, the ex-lawyer has written two books, testified to half a dozen congressional committees and appeared before local and state prosecutors to talk about his work for Trump.

On Tuesday, Cohen told The Messenger's Adam Klasfeld that he "provided information to [New York's attorney general] that is the basis of this trial."