NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s first week on trial in New York Attorney General Tish James’ case against his family real estate empire saw the former president sulking inside the courtroom and screaming “witch hunt!” outside it, a gag order from the judge on the second day, and his legal team in overdrive by Friday.

The Republican presidential front-runner, facing four criminal cases and a slew of lawsuits, on Friday failed to pause the trial while he appeals the greatest legal setback he’s yet faced. Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron’s ruling the week before the trial began found him and his top executives — including sons Don Jr. and Eric — liable on James’ top fraud claim for exaggerating Trump Organization assets by up to $2.2 billion from 2014 to the final year of his presidency.

Engoron also stripped him of his New York business licenses, setting him up to lose the prized jewels in his real estate portfolio like his self-named Fifth Avenue tower.

In his opening, AG lawyer Kevin Wallace said Engoron’s determination that Trump and his execs submitted fake numbers in business deals left the government to show why they lied about the value of Trump-owned assets — and the amount to be paid as punishment. James is seeking at least $250 million.

“We will show the defendants made these false entries with the intent to defraud,” Wallace said.

In his blistering pretrial ruling, Engoron found that the defense offered by the former president — that the value of buildings is in the beholder’s eye — was absurd and “wholly without basis in law or fact.” But Trump lawyers hammered on with the argument.

“Real estate is malleable, your Honor. Real estate changes,” Trump lawyer Alina Habba said. “The values change, but there was absolutely no fraud, no intent to defraud, no conspiracy.”

Trump’s lawyers sought to pin the blame for any inaccuracies in the financial statements on the first witness, Donald Bender, from the firm Mazars. The former accountant, who prepared the yearly statements central to the AG’s case, maintained during three days on the stand that his job was to compile information Trump gave him — not to audit it. Bender said he tried to be thorough, but “they were not getting us all the documents.”

After Bender’s testimony, Trump Org controller and defendant Jeff McConney took the stand, admitting to regularly committing tax fraud, including submitting fake numbers that bloated the value of Trump’s Seven Springs estate in Westchester by more than $100 million because of seven phantom mansions son Eric Trump planned but never built.