'This is ridiculous': Judge whacks Trump lawyers for dragging out proceedings at fraud trial

Judge Arthur Engoron lost patience with former President Donald Trump's lawyers on Wednesday when they appeared to be needlessly dragging out the proceedings at his civil fraud trial.

As reported by The Messenger's Adam Klasfeld, Trump attorney Jesus Suarez seemed to get on the nerves of both Engoron and opposing counsel during his cross examination of accountant Donald Bender, who for decades looked after the Trump Organization's books as an employee of Mazars USA.

While cross-examining Bender, Suarez went through a lengthy list of individual Trump properties and asked Bender about whether each one was listed at its proper value.

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At one point, Engoron cut Suarez off and asked him how long it would take for him to go through all of the properties, and Suarez estimated that he would be able to wrap it up by the end of the day.

This drew an incredulous response from both Engoron and an attorney representing the New York Attorney General's Office, writes Klasfield, and Engoron instructed Suarez to start lumping properties together to speed things up.

When Suarez went right back to listing each item individually, reports Klasfeld, Engoron started "pounding the bench at one point and saying: 'This is ridiculous.'"

Engoron has gotten into several testy exchanges with Trump and his lawyers during this week's civil fraud trial, and on Tuesday he hit Trump with a gag order after Trump spread an evidence-free claim that a New York law clerk in Engoron's court was Sen. Chuck Schumer's (D-NY) "girlfriend."

The post about the clerk was promptly deleted from Trump's Truth Social website shortly after Engoron issued the gag order.