New York, New York - Donald Trump's former right-hand man Michael Cohen took the witness stand on Tuesday at the civil fraud case against the former president and said his ex-boss would "arbitrarily" inflate his net worth.

It was the first face-to-face meeting between the 77-year-old Trump and his former personal lawyer and fixer since Cohen became one of the most vocal critics of the New York real estate tycoon.

The pair mostly avoided eye contact as Cohen testified in the case in which Trump and his two eldest sons are accused of exaggerating the value of the Trump Organization's real estate assets to receive more favorable bank loans and insurance terms.

"I was tasked by Mr Trump to increase the total assets based upon a number he arbitrarily elected," the 57-year-old Cohen, who was once known as Trump's "pit bull," told the Manhattan courtroom.

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Cohen acknowledged responsibility for taking part in the alleged fraud and said he and former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg would "reverse-engineer asset classes" to achieve "whatever number [Trump] told us."

Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, denounced Cohen as a "liar" as he arrived at the courthouse to watch his former attorney take the stand.

It was Cohen's testimony before Congress in 2019 that sparked the investigation by the New York authorities into whether Trump had artificially inflated his net worth, and the two have been exchanging barbs for years. Ahead of the courtroom confrontation, Trump amped up the feud, telling reporters, "He's a liar. We did nothing wrong. There's nothing wrong with the financial statements."

Trump is not required to attend the proceedings, but he has shown up sporadically, using his appearances to portray himself as the victim of a supposed Democratic plot to interfere with his White House campaign.

The former president does not risk going to jail in the fraud trial, but New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking $250 million in penalties and the removal of Trump and his sons from management of the family real estate empire.

Cohen is also expected to be a star witness in a separate criminal case facing the former president in New York for allegedly paying election-eve hush money to a pornographic actress. Trump has been charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with the payment. He has pleaded not guilty.

Cohen was sentenced in 2018 to three years in prison for cases involving the hush money, campaign finance violations, and tax evasion, but was released after a little over a year.

Earlier this month, Trump withdrew a lawsuit he filed against Cohen seeking $500 million for alleged breach of attorney-client privilege and a confidentiality agreement. No reason was given for Trump dropping the suit, but Cohen noted that it came just days before the former president was scheduled to sit for a deposition.

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The civil fraud and hush money cases are only two of the legal battles facing Trump as he seeks to recapture the White House. He is to go on trial in Washington in March for conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election and in Florida in May on charges of mishandling secret government documents. Trump also faces racketeering charges in Georgia for allegedly conspiring to upend the election results in the southern state after his 2020 defeat.

Compounding his legal woes, a third former lawyer who worked on the Trump 2020 campaign pleaded guilty on Tuesday in the Georgia case. Jenna Ellis, in a tearful statement, expressed regret for her actions.

"I look back on this whole experience with deep remorse," she told the court after pleading guilty to a charge relating to false claims of voter fraud.

"If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post-election challenges," she said.