Chelsea Jia Feng/Insider.
- Sam Bankman-Fried took the stand in his trial in a rare hearing without the jury's presence.
- During questioning, he often meandered, dodged, and rephrased questions.
- The judge will take the night to decide whether the jury can hear Bankman-Fried's testimony.
In an unusual, tense hearing Thursday afternoon, the judge in Sam Bankman-Fried's criminal fraud trial criticized his "interesting," often circuitous answers to questions about whether he used funds belonging to customers of his cryptocurrency exchange for his own benefit.