2/ Trump arrived at the courthouse and @atrupar posted a vid in which Trump says this AFTER a gag order was imposed on him:

Trump dehumanizes Letitia James as a "political animal"

And this AFTER his team failed to ask for a jury trial:

Trump: "If I had a jury we'd win this case very easily, but I don't have a jury ... this is the beginning of communism."

3/ Klasfeld: (ICYMI, this is a judge with a sense of humor as well as gravitas)

Trump's lawyer Jose Suarez tells the judge he's gotten the message: "I also understand that in the Great State of NY it's called a triplex," pronouncing it like "triple" instead of "tri-."

Co-counsel Chris Kise quips: "Judge, in the South, it's just called apartment."

Engoron asks if they have triplexes in South.

Kise replies: That's why we call it an apartment.

Bender's testimony begins shortly after that.

4/🙄 👉🏼After Engoron chides Trump's attorney against performative questioning by saying "There's no jury here," Trump audibly groans and mumbles a reaction.👈🏼🙄

Questioning turns to an engagement continuance form between Mazars and Trump Org from 2016-'17.

🙄 👉🏼 Trump keeps noisily (but, for those of us in the gallery, mostly inaudibly) complaining about the judge's remarks throughout the questioning. 👈🏼🙄

5/ Having a bad day, #Trump? 🎻

Via erica orden:

Trump is more animated today. Earlier, he shook his head & sighed after the judge made a quip about no jury being present. A few moments ago, he threw up his hands and muttered something after a lawyer asked the judge to instruct the witness, Donald Bender, to speak more clearly.

He is again throwing up his hands and muttering to his lawyer Alina Habba. He has been looking at papers she is handing him.

6/ Trump’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, cont’d.

Klasfeld:

Since the time of the last post, Trump appears to have taken out his frustrations on paper, jotting down notes and whispering to his lawyers. He sometimes shakes his head and points.

This is as animated and worked up as I have seen Trump inside a courtroom so far.

7/ Klasfeld:

Trump's settled down considerably.

Back to cross-ex.

Trump's lawyer Jose Suarez says the "buck stopped with you, Mr. Bender," a proposition the witness denies.

"We were not engaged—compilation did not require us to do" audits.

"We were not engaged to do method appraisals."

8/ Via Pagliery:

Trump's combative lawyer, Jesus Suarez, finally gets to the point after questioning Bender about accounting minutiae for an hour-plus.

Bender said he didn't closely examine each massive property listed in Trump's personal financial statements.

He failed his job, Suarez said.

9/ Suarez reads from an accounting manual that describes responsibilities:

"Ordinarily an accountant can compile personal financial statements based on the individual's representation of the estimated current values of assets and the estimated current amounts of liabilities..."

"At a minimum, however, the accountant should obtain an understanding of the methods by which the individual determined the estimated current values of significant assets..."

10/ Paglieri, contd:

Suarez is trying to recast Trump's lies as his accountant's incompetence.

We're on a short break, and the Trump campaign keeps pumping out attacks on this trial.

It's so unbecoming. [I won't post the screen grab]

11/ We're starting again. The judge warned that he'd start in 15 min, even if certain people aren't here on time. Lo and behold, Trump hasn't walked back in.

His lawyers are here.

Where is he?

👉🏼In what's become typical MAGA fashion, Trump's lawyers are now trying delay tactics
***during*** the trial.👈🏼

Suarez keeps asking insanely long questions about accounting arcanum, repeating them for each year from 2020 back to 2011.

👉🏼Judge has had enough.

"Jesus!" he exclaims.👈🏼

12/ Kise & Robert argue they must repeat questions for each year, as case depends on a possible date cutoff (statute of limitations).

They cite how this is a "big case."

👉🏼Judge doesn't care, says they're wasting time & tells them to ask if answers for all years are the same.👈🏼

Trump just walked in, forcing the judge to pause for a minute.

He sat back down, and Kise is whispering in his ear.