Judge T.S. Ellis (pictured) scolded prosecutors for taking too long in presenting their case and for having a witness sit in despite his ruling this would not be allowed

The judge overseeing Paul Manafort’s tax fraud trial continued to clash with prosecutors throughout the day on Wednesday, quarrelling with them over witnesses and the slow pace of their questioning - as he has done throughout the trial.

Judge T.S. Ellis blew up at the government attorneys after discovering one of their witnesses had been sitting in the audience observing the entire trial – a practice the judge said he prohibited.

‘When I exclude witnesses, I mean everybody,’ he snapped at prosecutors, warning them ‘not to do that again.’

In the end Ellis allowed the witness, IRS Agent Matthew Welch, to testify.

The 78-year-old judge, who has been on the bench for 31 years and has a reputation for toughness in the courtroom, also urged the prosecution to wrap their case up as quickly as possible, noting that they had told him they would be done by Friday.

‘We need to find a way to focus sharply,’ he barked at prosecutors on Wednesday, arguing they did not necessarily need to use charts drafted by the FBI’s forensic accountant to show the flow of money.

During the testimony of FBI forensic expert Morgan Magionos, the judge interjected to ask if the purpose of the prosecution’s questioning was to argue Manafort didn’t pay taxes on his income – of if the government was suggesting that Manafort’s transfer of offshore money was illegal.

Prosecutors clarified that they were trying to show that Manafort failed to pay income taxes.

‘One can get lost with all these movements,’ argued Ellis, adding that this confusion might actually be ‘what the government is aiming for.’

While Ellis has been tough on both side during the case – he has repeatedly admonished the defense attorneys for asking ‘compound questions’ and being too slow in their objections – he has directed most of his ire at the government attorneys.

Government prosecutors have copped the wrath of Judge T.S Ellis, who slammed the attorneys on Wednesday for taking too long to present their case (pictured, a courtroom sketch depicting prosecutor Greg Andres (standing left) questioning Rick Gates (right), on Tuesday)

Judge Ellis has been arguing with the prosecution throughout the case, and has regularly admonished them for focusing on Manafort's lavish lifestyle (pictured: Assistant U.S. Attorney Uzo Asonye presents opening arguments as Judge T.S. Ellis sits back center)

His frustration with the prosecution reached a peak on Tuesday, when he yelled at U.S. attorney Greg Andres for not looking him in the eye and then appeared to call him out for crying.

‘Look at me! Don’t look down,’ said Ellis.

Andres replied that he was trying to read a document – but the judge dismissed the excuse as ‘B.S.’

‘I understand how frustrated you are. In fact, there’s tears in your eyes right now,’ said Ellis.

Ellis also snapped at Andres for addressing him informally without his title during their exchange, noting this trial was ‘not an informal proceeding.’

Before the trial even began, Ellis prohibited the prosecution from making almost any reference to the Trump campaign during the case.

He has also barred the prosecution from using the term ‘oligarch’ to describe the wealthy Ukrainian businessmen who paid Manafort for his political consulting work, arguing that this description is ‘pejorative’ and amounts to guilt by association.

Throughout the trial, Ellis has admonished prosecutors for emphasising Manafort’s excessive spending habits.

‘It isn’t a crime to have a lot of money and be profligate in your spending,’ said the judge on the first day of the trial, warning the government to stick to discussing the criminal charges.

He also rebuked the prosecution when they attempted to publish photos of Manafort’s suits on TV screens in the courtroom.

‘The government doesn’t want to prosecute somebody because they wear nice clothes, right?’ asked the judge.

When the prosecution attempted to continue the line of questioning, asking a witness to add up how much money Manafort spent at a high-end menswear store, the judge cut it off.

‘I said that’s enough,’ Ellis said sharply. ‘[The jury] can add.’

Admission: Rick Gates, 46, was accused by Manafort's attorney Kevin Downing (left) of lying to Robert Mueller's attorneys about how many affairs he had

Ellis later told prosecutors that he can ‘understand this effort to show [Manafort] lived lavishly,’ but did not believe this was relevant to the government’s tax evasion and bank fraud charges against the former Trump campaign chairman.

IRS Agent Matthew Welch and FBI forensics expert Morgan Magionos both testified on Wednesday afternoon, the seventh day of Manafort’s tax and bank fraud trial.

The defense grilled Magionos on discrepencies between Manafort’s signature on bank documents that tied him to accounts in Cyprus. According to Manafort’s attorneys, these signatures are different than ones that appeared on documents that the FBI seized from Manafort’s home, which they suggested could be because Gates forged the Cyprus records.

Magionos conceded that the signatures did have differences.

However, prosecutors countered that Manafort’s signatures had discrepencies even among the documents that were seized from his home by the FBI.

The defense also asked IRS Agent Matthew Welch if Manafort could have taken a tax deduction for money his lawyers allege was stolen from him by his former business partner Rick Gates. If this was the case, the defense suggested, then Manafort might not be liable for evading taxes on income he stored in offshore accounts.

Welch said there was indeed an embezzlement deduction and Manafort might have qualified for it.

‘Yes, it is allowable,’ said Welch. ‘Embezzlement would come under that [deduction rule], yes.’

However, prosecutors contended that Manafort would not have been allowed to take a deduction on income he never disclosed to the IRS in the first place.

Earlier in the day, Paul Manafort's defense team accused his former deputy Rick Gates of carrying on at least four extramarital affairs and then lying about it to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigators in a fiery exchange.

Gates, 46, who has been cooperating with prosecutors as part of a plea deal, previously admitted on the stand to living 'beyond his means' and embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from Manafort, 69, while having an extramarital affair with a woman in London whom he gave an apartment.

But he also told the court that this affair was a 'mistake' that took place a decade ago and lasted only five months. Gates, a married father of four, said his wife is aware of the affair.

Gates said on Wednesday he informed Manafort about the affair at the time and Manafort was supportive of him. Manafort did not fire Gates, who was his second-in-command at political consulting firm DMP International.

Turncoat: Rick Gates (pictured earlier this year) is testifying against his former boss Paul Manafort, who is in prison while on trial

Legal team: Manafort's defense attorneys including Kevin Downing (center) and Thomas Zehnle (right) arrive for court Wednesday

After Gates described his relationship as a mistake, Manafort's attorney Kevin Downing asked Gates if he had disclosed to special counsel Mueller's team that he actually had affairs with four different women.

Gates appeared momentarily stunned by the question, responding 'Uhh…' before prosecutors interrupted the exchange to object.

Downing told the judge that the question was necessary to establish whether Gates had lied to the special counsel's office.

The judge called the attorneys to a private bench discussion, which was not audible to the audience or jury.

When the attorneys returned, Downing reframed his line of questioning and asked Gates if his 'secret life' had coincided with the timeframe of the charges he pleaded guilty to on conspiracy to commit bank and tax fraud.

'I made many mistakes over many years and I regret them,' responded Gates.

Gates repeated a lot of the same information from his testimony on prior days, discussing the numerous foreign bank accounts he said he helped set up at Manafort's direction. He said he was also ordered by Manafort not to disclose these accounts to tax preparers.

At one point, the defense asked Gates if he realized he had been facing 200 years in prison before his plea agreement with the government.

Gates said he hadn't realized it was that much time – he thought it was 'only' 100 years – drawing laughter in the court room.

Manafort also faces over 100 years in prison for 18 charges of tax and bank fraud.

Gates's testimony began late Monday, continued all day on Tuesday and wrapped up on Wednesday morning.

He has provided first-hand accounts supporting the prosecution's allegations that Manafort hid millions of dollars in offshore banks to evade U.S. taxes, and knowingly falsified his financial information to obtain loans.

But he has also faced numerous attacks on his credibility from Manafort's defense attorneys.

They claim Gates stole millions from Manafort over the years to fund a lavish jet-setting lifestyle and secret mistresses – then committed tax and bank fraud under Manafort's name in order to cover up his own crimes.

Gates has admitted to at least some of the allegations from Manafort's attorneys, admitting to embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from Manafort's company and to carrying on at least one extramarital relationship.

Gates said he kept an apartment in London for the affair and took first-class trips through Europe, using money from offshore bank accounts.

Gates told the court that Manafort directed him to hide millions of dollars in offshore accounts from U.S. tax collectors and to submit false financial information to banks in order to collect fraudulent loans.

He spoke bluntly about the criminal activity he claimed he carried out under orders from Manafort, who he first met at a Christmas party in 1995 while interning for the former Trump campaign chairman's lobbying company.

'At Mr. Manafort's request at different points in the years we didn't disclose the foreign bank accounts [to accountants],' said Gates.

'That was in order to reduce the taxable income on [Paul Manafort's] tax returns,' he added.

Watching brief: Manafort's wife Kathleen has been present throughout the trial

Day in court: Rick Gates's second day of cross-examination drew a crowd to the courtroom, where an overflow has been set up too

Happier times: Rick Gates (left) was at Paul Manafort side for more than a decade, including acting as his deputy when Manafort chaired Donald Trump's campaign. Both men were at the Cleveland Republican National Convention where Trump became the party's candidate

Gates said Manafort ordered him to lie to accountants, and directed him to hide the company's foreign bank accounts, which housed millions of dollars the firm had earned from Manafort's Ukrainian political consulting clients.

Gates also told prosecutors that he was aware his actions were illegal.

He said Manafort asked him to make wire transfers from their foreign bank accounts, which were primarily based in Cyprus. According to Gates, he and Manafort contolled 12 undisclosed accounts in Cyprus, two in the Grenadines, and one in the U.K.

Defense attorneys went after Gates's credibility, honing in on what they described as his 'secret life' on Tuesday.

'I acknowledge I had a period of time when I had another relationship,' admitted Gates.

'I was living beyond my means,' he said. 'It was a difficult time…I regret it clearly and I'm taking responsibility for it.'

Gates acknowledged that as part of this relationship he purchased a 'flat in London' and flights to Ukraine, using money from foreign accounts that the defense says Gates stole from Manafort.

Gates said he also paid for 'fancy hotels' and 'trips to Europe' with around $2.5 million the defense claimed he embezzled. He said he also used to money to travel to Las Vegas for an unrelated work meeting with a movie producer, which he admitted could be considered embezzlement.

Manafort's defense team also questioned Gates about a plea deal he reached with the government, which required his to cooperate with prosecutors on the Manafort case in exchange for lenient sentencing guidelines and a reduction in criminal charges against him.

Downing asked Gates if he had embezzled money from the Trump inauguration committee while he was working there in late 2016.

'It's possible,' said Gates.

When presented with a list of $3 million in his expenses by the defense, Gates initially told the court that some of the charges were authorized. He also admitted to previously telling investigators that six transfers, amounting to $450,000, were approved by Manafort.

Back in focus: The $15,000 ostrich skin jacket Paul Manafort bought with a wire transfer to a New York men's store was part of a scheme to avoid tax, an FBI accountant told the court

But when the defense asked him which charges from the list were authorized, Gates was unable to identify them.

The end of Gates's testimony was followed by more evidence which once agan raised Manafort's lavish lifestyle.

A forensic accountant told how the FBI traced payments from Manafort's offshore accounts to vendors in the United States, including a luxury menswear store where he purchased a $15,000 ostrich jacket.

Morgan Magionos, an FBI financial forensics expert, told the court on Wednesday that she tracked these transfers from accounts connected to Manafort in Cyprus, the Grenadines and the U.K. She traced the money through wire transfers and other bank records.

She said at least $748,000 in foreign account payments went to Alan Couture, a custom clothing store in New York where Manafort spent over $927,000 between 2010 and 2014, according to the store's manager.

Another $490,000 in foreign payments went to the Beverly Hills-based House of Bijan, which is known as the 'most expensive men's store in the world.' Manafort spent over $657,000 at the retailer between 2010 and 2013, the company's financial officer testified last week.

Manafort's purchases at the stores included a python jacket and a $21,000 watch.

Magionos also traced over $6 million from the accounts that Manafort spent on three properties in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Arlington, Va.

Over $200,000 was also transferred from Manafort's accounts to make payments at a Mercedes Benz dealership and a Landrover dealership, according to Magionos.

Prosecutors also showed Manafort's personal involvement in the transfers, producing several emails between the former Trump campaign chairman and his tax attorneys in Cyprus that showed him authorizing the payments.

Judge T.S. Ellis clashed with prosecutors once again on Wednesday over the slow pace of their questioning.

'We need to find a way to focus sharply,' he snapped at prosecutors, arguing that they did not necessarily need to use charts that were drafted by the FBI's forensic accountant showing the flow of money.

Later in Magionos's testimony, the judge interjected to ask if the purpose of her testimony was to argue Manafort didn't pay taxes on his income – of if the government was suggesting that Manafort's transfer of offshore money was illegal.

Prosecutors clarified that they were trying to show that Manafort failed to pay income taxes.

'One can get lost with all these movements of monies,' said Ellis, adding that this confusion might actually be 'what the government is aiming for.'

Ellis has urged the government attorneys throughout the trial to speed up and focus their questioning of witnesses. He has also admonished them for word choices he believes are prejudicial and their emphasis on Manafort's excessive spending habits.