Trump Leaves NY Courtroom, Muttering ‘Unbelievable,’ After Judge Denies Directed Verdict in His Favor

Former President Donald Trump left his New York civil fraud trial in a huff on Wednesday afternoon, after a judge denied a directed verdict in his favor following blistering cross-examination of his ex-attorney Michael Cohen.

"Unbelievable," Trump muttered, as he stood up to leave, followed by U.S. Secret Service agents and his son Eric Trump.

"Unbelievable," he said again.

Moments earlier, the Trump family's attorney Clifford Robert had confronted Cohen with a transcript of his 2019 testimony that stated: "Did he ask me to inflate the numbers? Not that I recall, no."

Pressed on whether the earlier testimony was accurate, Cohen responded: "Correct."

With that, Robert huddled with Trump and the rest of the former president's legal team — and after their conversation, immediately requested a directed verdict in favor of the defense. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron curtly responded: "Denied," prompting the former president's walkout with his son.

Trump's departure was just one of the remarkable events that panned out in court on Wednesday afternoon. Earlier that afternoon, Engoron convened a makeshift hearing, put Trump under oath, and declared his testimony "not credible," before hitting him with a $10,000 fine for violation of a gag order. That gag order forbade Trump and all other parties to the proceeding from making any remarks about courtroom staff, but the former president appeared to do just that before a press gaggle outside the courtroom.

"This judge is a very partisan judge, with a person who's very partisan sitting alongside of him, perhaps even much more partisan than he is," Trump said, without explicitly naming the judge's law clerk Allison Greenfield, who sits immediately next to Engoron.

Trump, echoing his lead lawyer Christopher Kise, claimed to have been speaking about Cohen, but the judge didn't believe him.

Shortly before that, Cohen acknowledged under oath that he made false statements under oath in court and to Congress, beyond the testimony that landed him his convictions in 2018. In one instance, Cohen asserted that he lied to Southern District of New York Judge William H. Pauley III when he admitted to tax evasion crimes. Cohen has claimed that he admitted to those crimes under pressure from federal prosecutors.

Before Robert took over questioning, Trump's attorney Alina Habba finished her scorching cross-examination on the same 2019 testimony where Cohen denied recalling any order from the former president to inflate his assets. Cohen had claimed a day earlier that Trump had him "reverse engineer" his assets to "arbitrarily" reach a net worth of his boss's choosing.

New York Attorney General Letitia James' counsel Colleen Faherty tried to rehabilitate Cohen's testimony on redirect by probing further into his remarks about his 2019 testimony. Cohen testified that Trump "speaks like a mob boss," laying out his objectives indirectly rather than explicitly. Trump's legal team attempted another directed verdict after that, arguing that the state's star witness left his credibility in shambles.

Bristling, Engoron replied: “Absolutely denied, calling the Trump lawyer's motion "absurd." He added that the attorney general's case hardly rises and falls on Cohen's word.

In 2019, Cohen's testimony before the House Oversight Committee sparked civil and criminal investigations into Trump and his businesses. The criminal probe resulted in the convictions of the Trump Organization and its ex-chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, while the civil one already has led to an order to dissolve Trump's key New York businesses.

But Engoron rejected the premise that Cohen is a "key witness."

"There’s enough evidence in this case to fill this courtroom,” Engoron said, referring to Manhattan Supreme Court's majestic and cavernous ceremonial Room 300.