Donald Trump clashes with judge during first hour of testimony at NY fraud trial
New York, New York - Donald Trump took the stand on Monday for his New York civil fraud trial and clashed with the judge several times as he continued to act out in defiance.
According to CNN, Trump's testimony begin with prosecutors asking the former president if he was responsible for information provided in a 2014 statement of financial condition for his Trump Organization.
In response, Trump noted the statement was made by Mazars, the accounting firm for the organization, and he was responsible for "getting them information."
Prosecutors pressed further, eventually leading to Judge Arthur Engoron to interject and ask Trump to directly answer the question.
Trump responded that he provided information to Mazars when needed, but "principally" former Trump Org. CFO Allen Weisselberg and ex-Trump Org. executive Jeff McConney handled it.
Throughout his testimony, Trump went on lengthy tangents. At one point he ranted about how, if he wanted to "build up" the statement as he is accused of, he would have "added brand value here, and I would've increased it by tens of millions of dollars."
Engoron continued to push Trump to "please answer yes or no," and eventually got so frustrated that he threatened to dismiss him.
"I beseech you to control him if you can," Engoron said to Trump attorney Chris Kise. "If you can't, I will. I will excuse him and draw every negative inference that I can."
Donald Trump gets the last word in before break
Right before the judge called for the court to take a 15-minute break, Trump leaned into the microphone at the stand and said, "This is a very unfair trial. Very, very, and I hope the public is watching," even though there were no cameras in the courtroom.
As he exited the courtroom for the break, Trump faced the news cameras set up outside the room, and made a motion with his hand over his mouth to indicate that he is "zipping his lip."
In Truth Social post during the break, Trump wrote, "THIS TRIAL IS RIDICULOUS, ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!"
Cover photo: Collage: POOL / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP & Adam GRAY / AFP