Attorneys for the defense team declined to cross-examine Cameron Harris after the former Trump accountant completed his testimony. However they reserved the right to call him back to the stand later.

Instead, they spent the last hour of court Wednesday continuing their cross-examination of former Mazars USA accountant Donald Bender, who handled Trump's account prior to Harris.

After the defense highlighted Bender's inconsistent statements about Mazars' use of specialists to evaluate assets, Bender seemed to struggle to articulate how Mazars provided accounting expertise.

Defense attorney Jesus Suarez told Judge Engoron that he plans to continue his cross-examination of Bender through Thursday afternoon, though the defense promised to "streamline" their questions after the judge complained about the timing.

Court was then adjourned for the day.

Cameron Harris, an accountant from the firm Whitley Penn, has taken the stand as the trial's second witness following hours of testimony from former Trump accountant Donald Bender of Mazars USA, whose cross-examination will continue later.

Whitley Penn succeeded Mazars as Trump's accounting firm.

Harris testified that Trump's son Eric Trump "set the tone at the top" of the Trump Organization.

Like Bender, Harris testified that the Trumps had the ultimate responsibility for their financial statements.

"Who's responsible for the statement of financial condition?" asked state attorney Kevin Wallace as Eric Trump sat in the courtroom.

"The client's responsible for that," Harris replied.

The proceedings appear to have taken a more workmanlike tone since Trump left the courtroom to return to Florida. The defense has not logged a single objection after earlier objecting so often that it drew the judge's ire.

With former President Trump heading back to Florida after attending three days of the trial, New York Attorney General Letitia James told reporters that "the Donald Trump show is over."

Speaking to the media on her way back into court following a break, James denounced Trump's rhetoric about the case, as well as his social media post about the judge's clerk.

"Mr. Trump's comments were offensive, they were baseless, they were void of any facts," James said.

Trump, who called James "corrupt" during his various appearances outside the courtroom, also denounced the case she brought as "rigged" and said it was timed to upend his campaign for the presidency.

"This case was brought simply because it was a case where individuals were engaged in a pattern and practice of fraud," James said. "I will not be bullied."

"Mr. Trump is no longer here -- the Donald Trump show is over," said James. "This was nothing more than a political stunt, a fundraising stop."

Three days into their fraud trial, Trump and his co-defendants have appealed the pretrial ruling last week by Judge Engoron that Trump and his adult sons committed fraud in their business dealings.

Engoron made the determination last Tuesday but said the trial was still required to decide the scope of the penalty plus six remaining causes of action alleged by the New York attorney general.

Trump's appeal asks the court to consider whether Engoron "committed errors of law and/or fact, abused its discretion, and/or acted in excess of its jurisdiction" when he ruled that Trump committed fraud and canceled his business certificates in New York state.

Trump's last attempt in this case to appeal to a higher court was denied by the appellate division of the New York State Supreme Court on the eve of the trial.

Trump attorney Jesus Suarez will continue his cross examination of former Deutsche Bank risk management executive Nicholas Haigh when Trump's civil trial resumes this morning.

Deutsche Bank was the Trump Organization's largest single lender between 2011 and 2022, loaning the former president upwards of $300 million through the bank's private wealth management division.

Describing himself as an "ultimate decider" of the loans' riskiness, Haigh testified Wednesday that his decision-making process relied on Trump's financial statements -- documents that the New York attorney general alleges were fraudulent.

"I assumed that the representations of the assets and liabilities were broadly accurate," Haigh said yesterday.

Earlier witnesses have testified about how Trump's financial documents were drafted, finalized, and sent to banks -- but Haigh is the first witness to testify from the perspective of the banks, which the attorney general says were allegedly deceived by Trump's inflated financial statements.

Suarez, during his first hour cross examining Haigh on Wednesday, said Deutsche Bank was a sophisticated company that profited from the loans.

Haigh also acknowledged that the bank failed to conduct its own independent appraisals of Trump's top properties, and did not rigorously examine his financial information.