Donald Trump has been fined yet again for violating a gag order – this time to the tune of $10,000 – after publicly slamming the judge and his staff in his fraud trial outside of the court.

Judge Arthur Engoron forced the former president to take the stand after the lunch recess on Wednesday to explain remarks he made outside the courtroom earlier during a morning break in the case.

Trump slowly got up from his seat at a bench between his lawyers and sat in the witness box, adjusting himself back to make room for his body.

Trump claimed he was referring to Michael Cohen, his former fixer who was testifying, but the judge said he disagreed.

Judge Engoron said that he found Trump’s testimony ‘not credible’ and ordered him to be fined for the second time. Trump’s comments were in violation of a gagging order that the judge put in earlier on the case.

Earlier in Wednesday’s proceedings Judge Engoron paused testimony on Wednesday to scold the former president for his remarks.

Midway through key witness Michael Cohen’s cross examination, Judge Arthur Engoron broke off to address Trump’s ‘blatant, dangerous disobeyal’ of his court order not to speak about his staff.

Reading a report by the Associated Press, he referred to Trump’s quotes calling the judge ‘very partisan’ and the person ‘sitting next to him’ ‘even more partisan’ – in an apparent reference to his clerk Allison Greenfield.

The comments, made outside the courtroom during the morning break, came after Trump was fined $5,000 last week for violating Engoron’s gag order barring him from disparaging court staff during the trial.

Addressing the issue again on Wednesday, Judge Engoron said he imposed the order because ‘I don’t want anybody killed.’

It was ‘very easy for anyone to know who that person is’, the judge said.

Trump’s lawyer Christopher Kise responded saying his client had been referring to Cohen, who sat in the witness box to the judge’s left.

When the judge asked if Trump could explain who he was speaking about, Kise said he had asked him already.

Judge Engoron said he thought it meant his law clerk and ‘seemed clear to me’, pointing out there was a physical barrier between him and the witness in the courtroom.

The judge said he would take the matter ‘under advisement’ and did not rule on whether to issue what he said could be ‘severe’ sanctions.

Earlier in Wednesday’s proceedings, Habba had complained about ‘eye rolls and constant whispering’ between the judge and Greenfield.

Habba said it was ‘incredibly distracting’ when she was trying to cross examine Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer and personal lawyer.

Judge Engoron said: ‘OK, granted’.