Former President Trump is back in the courtroom in New York as part of his civil fraud trial. Today he’ll be taking the stand to answer questions about his involvement in the valuation of his properties when applying for bank loans. As you may recall, Judge Arthur Engoron has already ruled that those valuations constituted fraud which means the only issue left to decide in this civil trial is how much money Trump will be forced to pay. The New York Attorney General is asking for $250 million.

Prior to today, Trump has repeatedly taken opportunities during breaks in the trial to attack the judge and AG Letitia James, saying they are biased against him. Judge Engoron didn’t seem to respond to these jabs, but drew a line at Trump’s comments about his clerk. Trump’s references to the clerk on Truth Social led to a gag order and subsequently two separate fines ($5,000 and $10,000) against Trump for violating that order.

Today’s testimony seems to be going about as well as you could expect. Trump took the stand and has been offering somewhat rambling answers to questions. Judge Engoron has repeatedly asked that Trump confine himself to answering the questions put to him.

“Some of your answers have not been in response to the question,” Engoron said.

“Mr. Wallace is being very patient. I would like to move this along,” the judge said, referring to Kevin Wallace of the New York attorney general’s office…

But minutes later, when the former president was asked by the attorney general’s lawyer about whether he was responsible for preparing his financial statements, Trump again went after the judge.

“I’m sure the judge will rule against me because he always rules against me,” Trump said after complaining about the statute of limitations in the case.

At that point, the judge asked Trump’s attorney if those comments were necessary and once again directed Trump to answer the questions put to him. A short while later Kevin Wallace asked Trump another question and Trump went on a discourse about how he could have raised the values higher using “brand value” if he’d wanted to.

“If I wanted to build up the statement, like you said I did before you found out just how rich we are, I would’ve added brand value here and I would’ve increased it by tens of millions of dollars,” Trump said in reference to his statements of financial conditions.

Judge Arthur Engoron then intervened and said to New York Attorney General lawyer Kevin Wallace, “Mr. Wallace, did you ask for an essay on brand values?”

This dynamic continued as Wallace asked Trump about the valuation of a specific property. Instead of answering that question, Trump suggested the issue was outside the 5-year statute of limitations. At that point, Judge Engoron threatened to remove Trump from the stand.

Engoron wasn’t pleased: “Mr. Kise that was a simple yes or no question. We got another speech. I beseech you to control him if you can. If you can’t I will. I will I excuse him and draw every negative inference that I can.”

Trump’s attorneys argued that the judge should listen to whatever Trump has to say but the Judge says Trump is there to answer questions:

“No, I’m not here to hear what he has to say. I’m here to hear him answer questions,” Engoron said in response, raising his voice and telling Trump’s lawyers to “sit down already.”

Trump then piped in before the questions continued: “This is a very unfair trial. Very, very and I hope the public is watching,” he said, leaning into the mic.

At that point there was a 15 minute break in the trial. All of the arguments above happened in just the first hour of Trump’s testimony. The second hour is reportedly going more smoothly.

Assistant attorney general Kevin Wallace has been continuing to question Trump about the values of his various properties and his role in their appraisals, including his triplex apartment in Trump Tower.

Trump has still given several asides in his answer that were admonished by Engoron in the first hour, though the judge has mostly not stopped him since the break. “It’s much more valuable,” Trump said of Mar-a-Lago, “and we’ll show that in two weeks or five weeks or nine weeks or whenever this thing goes, that its biggest value is using it as a club.”

Trump’s testimony is supposed to last all day and we’re not even halfway through it yet. So we’ll have to wait and see what develops this afternoon.

Update: Trump goes after the judge from the stand.

“He called me a fraud and he didn’t know anything about me,” Trump said, referencing the judge.

“Read my opinion perhaps or for the first time,” the judge retorted.

“I think it’s fraudulent, the decision,” Trump said. “The fraud is on the court, not on me.”

He goes after the AG as well:

“You believed this political hack back there and that’s unfortunate,” Trump says to the judge of James. “Done,” asks Kevin Wallace? “Done,” says the former president, and the question continues.

They have now taken a break for lunch.