Did Manafort trial judge really make Mueller’s prosecutor cry in court? Here’s what happened.

A federal judge’s rebuke in a courtroom showdown may have brought Robert Mueller’s prosecutors to tears.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III pressed the prosecutors after dismissing jurors in the Paul Manafort trial on Monday, getting into a nearly 10-minute debate over the length of the case, its merits and even prosecutor Greg Andres not making eye contact, Fox News reported.

After former Manafort business partner, Rick Gates, took the witness stand Monday in the bank fraud and tax evasion case, Ellis was frustrated and leveled questions at Mueller’s team. AT one point, he apparently felt disrespected by Andres who looked down instead of directly at the judge.

“Look at me! Don’t look down,” Ellis demanded.

Andres attempted to clarify that he was looking at a document but Ellis was not buying his excuse.

“You looked down as if to say ‘that’s B.S.!’” the judge said. “I’m up here!”

Ellis also pressed the prosecutors on why they were moving so slowly with Gates while also constantly linking him t wealthy Ukrainians.

“What matters are the allegations that he made money from them and didn’t report it,” Ellis said. “You don’t need to throw mud at these people.”

“I don’t know if they are bad or good. And I don’t care,” he added.

“I don’t know why you keep singin out these individuals,” Andres replied about the Ukrainians. “These people are not like any Americans. These people are oligarchs and that means they control a segment of the economy based on the governments allowing them to do that.”’

“These are not really political contributions,” he said. “They are self-serving payments with respect to what oligarchs do.”

“That makes it even clearer to me that it doesn’t have anything to do with the allegations in this case,” the judge fired back. “It throws dirt on these people. They may deserve it. I don’t know – and I don’t care.”

Court transcripts from Monday’s exchange were released showing how heated things got.

Ellis, the 78-year-old Reagan-appointee, has been overseeing the case against Manafort who faces tax evasion and bank fraud charges.

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