Trump's Lawyer Rages Against Letitia James' Team in Courtroom Fight

One of the attorneys representing Donald Trump in his civil fraud trial got into a heated exchange on Wednesday with one of the lawyers from Attorney General Letitia James' legal team.

Attorneys Christopher Kise and Alina Habba continued the day's proceedings by cross-examining former longtime Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who first took the stand on Tuesday and was in the same room as the former president for the first time in five years.

Cohen is a witness for the state of New York as part of James' $250 million lawsuit alleging inflation of the net worth by Trump, two of his sons and the Trump Organization. Trump has maintained his innocence, rebuking the accusations in the suit by claiming political motivations by Democrats intended to negatively impact his 2024 presidential bid.

As Habba continued questioning Cohen today, including about excerpts from his book Revenge and from older news stories in which he expressed his affinity for Trump, a verbal argument reportedly broke out between Kise and the attorney general's office's lawyer, Colleen Faherty.

Faherty repeatedly interrupted Habba's line of questioning, according to The Daily Beast's Jose Pagliery, who was present in the courtroom. It prompted Kise to call her out, to which Judge Arthur Engoron requested respect for the state's legal team.

Kise reportedly mentioned the attorney general's office trying to sanction him in the past, adding that respect isn't given but earned. He also mentioned that he had been practicing law for 30 years without sanctions until he encountered attempts by the attorney general.

"I've argued four cases before the Supreme Court—they want me to be respectful to them?" Kise said.

James' office wanted to sanction Trump's legal team for continuing to raise "previously-rejected arguments" in their motions, according to court filings.

James called the defense lawyers' statements "frivolous and sanctionable" because "sophisticated defense counsel should have known better."

Within the past week, Engoron threatened "serious sanctions" for Trump's legal team due to the president becoming close to violating a gag order by way of his social media posts.

Cohen testified on Tuesday that he lied to Congress under Trump's direction and for his benefit.

"I was asked to increase the total assets based upon a number that he arbitrarily elected," Cohen said about Trump's 2011 financial statement, adding that it was his responsibility to reverse engineer various assets "in order to achieve a number that Mr. Trump asked" for.

Trump fired back post-testimony, referring to Cohen as "a disgraced felon."

"Michael Cohen was a complete and total disaster in the Biden Inspired Trial today. Lie after lie, and getting caught each time," Trump posted on Truth Social on Tuesday.

According to Pagliery, Cohen may have subjected himself to perjury based on new testimony in which he reportedly attempted to walk back his previous guilty plea for tax evasion even though he admitted guilt to a federal judge.

Cohen reportedly said he lied to that judge, which Habba and company deemed as perjury. The state called the accusations "showmanship."