State Rep. Joe Armstrong testified for almost three hours Friday morning in his own defense during his trial on charges of federal tax evasion. The Knoxville News Sentinel reports:

Armstrong has maintained since the trial's start Stivers, a confessed liar and thief, assured him taxes on the $321,000 windfall from a deal involving a 2007 cigarette tax stamp hike had been paid but instead stole the money. He repeated that assertion in both his direct testimony under questioning by defense attorney Gregory P. Isaacs and cross-examination by Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Atchley Friday.

"Mr. Atchley, Mr. Stivers was my tax attorney," Armstrong testified. "I believed in him. I'm telling you, I relied on Mr. Stivers." ...

Armstrong's demeanor was relaxed, and that did not change during cross-examination. There was one moment, however, when the lawmaker paused several seconds before answering a question from Atchley that seemed to catch him off guard.

The question?

"You did not want to share this money with your wife, did you?" Atchley asked, suggesting a new motive for Armstrong's alleged tax evasion.

Isaacs objected. Senior Judge Thomas Phillips held a discussion with Isaacs and prosecutors at the bench which could not be heard by jurors or spectators. Atchley did not repeat the question when he returned to the podium. Armstrong's wife has been in the courtroom throughout the trial.

Motions filed late last month suggested the government wanted to call her as a witness. Isaacs balked, and prosecutors later responded they would not seek to question her about confidential conversations she may have had with her husband.