Former President Donald Trump exploded at his Manhattan civil fraud trial Monday minutes after making a zipped-lips gesture to reporters — and accused the judge who has branded him a fraudster of mounting a “fraud” himself.
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“He called me a fraud and he didn't know anything about me!” the 2024 GOP presidential frontrunner yelled — pointing at Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron.
“The fraud is on the court, not on me.”
Trump's tirade came at around noon — midway through his about four hours of testimony in New York Attorney General Letitia James' $250 million lawsuit accusing him of inflating his wealth by billions per year to save money on loan and insurance terms.
“She’s a political hack,” Trump shouted of James, who was sitting calmly in the first row of the gallery.
Gesturing furiously with his hands on Ella, the real estate tycoon then accused James of attempting to use “this case to become governor” and having used it to gain her current post on Ella.
Earlier in the day, the judge had chastised Trump, 77, for giving “repetitive” and “non-responsive” answers to simple “yes-or-no questions” by AG attorneys about whether he stood by the annual financial filings at the core of the suit.
“This is not a political rally,” Engoron told the former president. “Please, just answer the questions, no speeches.”
The judge — who is deciding the case because the type of suit James brought calls for a bench trial — at one point snapped at Trump's attorneys to “control your client.”
“I would kiss you to control him if you can. If you ca n’t, I will,” the exasperated jurist said, before threatening to boot Trump from the witness stand and drawing “negative inferences” in his absence.