"We're going to have opening statements on Monday morning," Judge Juan Merchan declared.

He made the pronouncement after admonishing the defense to stop filing letters "targeting individual decisions one by one by one."

"There comes a point where you accept my rulings," he told Trump and his defense team.

"I've entertained your motions. I've entertained your arguments," Merchan said. "There's nothing else to clarify. There is nothing else to argue. We are going to have opening statements on Monday. We are starting on Monday."

Judge Juan Merchan plans to issue a ruling tomorrow about the bounds of Donald Trump's cross-examination if the former president decides to testify during the trial.

After hearing a brief oral argument this afternoon, Merchan told the parties he is reserving his decision, which he plans to issue sometime tomorrow.

Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo argued that Trump's alleged prior bad acts as demonstrated by a variety of civil and criminal determinations should be fair game during cross-examination.

The Sandoval hearing on Trump's potential testimony got underway with prosecutors pushing to cross-examine former president Donald Trump about his alleged violation of the limited gag order in his civil fraud trial.

Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo asked Judge Merchan to permit them to ask the former president about his testimony during his civil fraud trial when the former president claimed he was not referring to Judge Arthur Engoron's law clerk during remarks in the hallway of the courthouse last year.

Engoron determined that Trump's brief testimony rang "hollow and untrue."

Colangelo asked Merchan to allow cross-examination about Trump's testimony and the gag order violation last year in order to probe his credibility.

"He lied," Colangelo said of Trump. "It is very hard to think of something more probative of a testifying defendant's credibility."

Judge Juan Merchan began the court's afternoon session but did not mention the self-immolation incident this afternoon in the park across from the courthouse, and Trump did not respond to questions about the incident when asked by a reporter in the hallway outside the courtroom.

The judge plans to hold a Sandoval hearing this afternoon to determine the bounds of Trump's cross-examination if he decides to testify.

In a filing earlier this week, prosecutors said they planned to question the former president about his past civil cases, including $464 million business fraud judgment, the defamation and battery cases brought by E. Jean Carroll and a lawsuit Trump filed against Hillary Clinton claiming she conspired to rig the 2016 election.

Prosecutors also want to question Trump about the Trump Organization's 2022 criminal trial for tax evasion and the civil case against the Trump Foundation for misusing charitable donations to further Trump's political interests.

Trump is seated at counsel table between his lawyers Emil Bove and Todd Blanche. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is not present in the courtroom.

Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo told the jury, during his opening statement, "During this trial you're going to hear a lot about Michael Cohen.”

Trump's former personal attorney, Cohen is a key witness -- perhaps the only one that will testify to Donald Trump’s intent when he agreed to pay Stormy Daniels hush money.

The defense “will go to great lengths” to convince the jury Cohen is not credible, Colangelo said.

He acknowledged that Cohen had earlier lied regarding the matter. “He lied about it to protect his boss,” Colangelo said. “You will also learn that Michael Cohen has a criminal record.”

Colangelo told jurors they can believe Cohen despite his past mistakes.

“Cohen's testimony will be backed up by testimony from other witnesses you will hear from, including David Pecker, Keith Davidson. It will be backed up by an extensive paper trail. And it will be backed up by Donald Trump’s own words,” the prosecutor said.

Colangelo concluded by saying, “This case is about a criminal conspiracy and a cover-up, an illegal conspiracy to undermine the integrity of a presidential election and then the steps that Donald Trump took to conceal that election fraud. At the end of the case we are confident you will have no reasonable doubt that Donald Trump is guilty of falsifying business records.”