NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump returned to his civil fraud trial Thursday to spotlight his defense, renewing his complaints the case is baseless and heaping praise on an accounting professor’s testimony that backed him up.

With testimony winding down after more than two months, the Republican 2024 presidential front-runner showed up to watch New York University accounting professor Eli Bartov.

The academic disputed the crux of New York State Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit: that Trump’s financial statements were filled with fraudulently inflated asset values for such signature assets as his Trump Tower penthouse and his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.

“My main finding is that there is no evidence whatsoever of any accounting fraud,” said Bartov, whom Trump’s lawyers hired to give expert perspective. Trump’s financial statements, he said, “were not materially misstated.”

He suggested that anything problematic — like a huge yearto-year leap in the estimated value of the Trump Tower triplex — was simply an error.

Even while campaigning to reclaim the presidency and fighting four criminal cases, Trump is devoting a lot of attention to the New York trial. He’s been a frustrated onlooker, a confrontational witness and a heated commentator outside the courtroom door.

Earlier in the trial, Trump attended several days and spent one on the witness stand while the state was presenting its case. But Thursday marked his first appearance since the defense has been calling its own witnesses. He’s due to testify again Monday.

He watched attentively Thursday, sometimes appearing to point out parts of documents to his lawyers, and at one point shaking his head when their adversaries objected to some of Bartov’s testimony. During breaks, he lauded Bartov’s testimony and assailed the lawsuit, which is putting Trump’s net worth on trial and threatens to disrupt the real estate empire that vaulted him to fame and the White House.

“This whole case is a fraud,” Trump declared, calling it an attempt “to influence an election.”

“We’re a failing nation because of things like this,” he said.

James’ lawsuit accuses Trump, his company and top executives including his sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr. of misleading banks and insurers by giving them financial statements that padded his net worth by billions of dollars.

The statements were provided to help secure deals, including loans at attractive interest rates available to hyperwealthy people. Some loans required updated statements each year.

Trump denies any wrongdoing, and he posits the statements’ numbers actually fell short of his wealth. He has downplayed the documents’ importance in dealmaking, saying it was clear that lenders and others should do their own analyses. And he claims the case is a partisan abuse of power by James and Judge Arthur Engoron, both Democrats.

Bartov testified financial statements are “only a first step in a long and complex process” of valuing assets and making lending decisions. He said the estimates on such documents are inherently subjective “opinions of value,” and that differences in such opinions don’t mean there’s fraud.

Calling Trump’s financial statements uncommonly detailed and “so transparent,” he said accompanying notes told readers to evaluate the numbers for themselves, and “even my 9-year-old granddaughter” would understand that. So did major Trump lender Deutsche Bank, Bartov maintained.