In August 1998, Bill Gates sat for roughly 20 hours of videotaped deposition questioning by government lead attorney David Boies ahead of Microsoft's antitrust trial. When excerpts were played in court that November, Gates came across as combative and evasive, quarreling over the meaning of ordinary words such as 'compete,' 'concerned,' and 'we,' and repeatedly saying he could not recall key events. According to contemporaneous reporting, the presiding judge laughed aloud at some of the exchanges. Gates later complained that Boies had asked imprecise questions and was out to damage Microsoft; legal observers nonetheless cited the performance as a costly misstep that undercut the company's credibility during the trial.