Fraud-trial judge calls Trump to the stand, then fines him $10,000 for violating his gag order

• A judge fined Donald Trump $10,000 on Wednesday for violating his gag order again.
• First, Trump told the judge that comments he made to reporters in the courthouse hallway were aimed at Michael Cohen, not a law clerk.
• The judge didn't buy it.

The judge in Donald Trump's New York fraud trial called the former president to the stand in Manhattan court on Wednesday, then doled out a $10,000 fine to the ex-president for violating his gag order.

Justice Arthur Engoron had called out Trump earlier in the day for accusing the judge's law clerk of being "very partisan" — comments the judge said were a "blatant" violation of the gag order prohibiting Trump from disparaging members of Engoron's staff.

"This judge is a very partisan judge," Trump was quoted by the AP as saying, "with a person who is very partisan sitting right beside him, perhaps even more partisan than he is."

A visibly irritated Engoron called Trump to the witness stand, where he told the judge he was referring not to the law clerk, whom he's barred from disparaging, but to "you and Michael Cohen" in his previous comment about the person "right beside" the judge.

But Engoron didn't buy it, and ordered the former president to pay a fine of $10,000 for violating the gag order.

"As the finder of fact, I find the witness was not credible," the judge said of Trump.

"The idea that the statement would refer to the witness" instead of the law clerk, who sits three feet to his right, "doesn't make sense to me," the judge said, adding that his ruling stands.

The $10,000 fine was levied on top of a $5,000 gag-order-violation fine the judge levied, for similar offense, just five days prior.