Interesting point. The quote appears to be the defense attorney's interpretation of the judge's statements.

https://scnr.com/article/hobby-gunsmith-in-nyc-convicted-aft...

IMO, it depends on the events in court; if there was extensive argumentation about that and the judge is finally saying that it's been discussed to death and there's no point bringing it up, that seems fine. (I don't want to read the actual court transcripts to figure out what the attorney is referring to, so this comment is intentionally inconclusive.)