Trump Trial Bombshell: Witness Testifies Allen Weisselberg Told Trump Org Executive Former President Wanted His Net Worth ‘To Go Up’

A current Trump Organization executive's three-day stint on the witness stand during the former president's civil fraud trial ended on Monday with a bombshell exchange.

Grilled by an attorney for New York Attorney General Letitia James, the company's assistant vice president Patrick Birney agreed that former chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg told him that Trump wanted to puff up his net worth on his statements of financial condition.

"Did Allen Weisselberg ever tell you that Donald Trump wanted his net worth on his statement of financial condition to go up?" the AG's counsel Eric Haren asked, in the final salvo of his redirect examination.

"Yes," Birney replied.

The exchange marks a fulfillment of a vow that the attorney general's office made at the start of trial weeks ago, in arguing that Trump, his family members and business associates fraudulently inflated his assets in financial statements to banks and insurers.

During those opening statements on Oct. 2, the AG's counsel Kevin Wallace quoted Birney as saying: "Allen Weisselberg told me, Donald like to see it go up."

Wallace emphasized that "it," in this formulation, referred to Trump's "net worth."

Trump's attorney Christopher Kise objected to Birney's confirmation of the exchange, describing it as inadmissible hearsay. The AG's office argues that the exchange fell under hearsay exceptions under New York law and precedent concerning admissions by a party opponent.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron gave both parties the opportunity to submit written arguments on the issue.

Over the course of three days, Birney's testimony has provided an insider account of how the Trump Organization created the former president's statements of financial condition, from the perspective of a current executive within the company. The state argues that Trump wanted his net worth to be assigned as high as possible on those forms to spike his rank on Forbes' billionaires list and to attain benefits with banks and insurers. The testimony elicited by the attorney general intends to show that Trump wanted his net worth to go up on the financial statements, regardless of whether or not his wealth moved in that direction.

Previous testimony by Deutsche Bank's former risk manager showed that the German lender required Trump to maintain a “minimum net worth of $2.5 billion," in order to a receive an up to $125 million loan, during a time that the AG claims the former president was worth less.

Birney's testimony recounted how the Trump Organization discussed assigning a presidential "premium" to their properties during his first year in the White House. It's unclear whether the company ever followed through on this idea, but evidence showed that the Trump Organization ultimately added a 15 percent brand premium on his golf courses, a practice that the judge already determined to have been fraudulent.

The financial statements claimed to have discounted the “goodwill attached to the Trump name," while tacking on premiums to the golf courses, a practice the judge described as a "double dip."