Donald Trump appears to have lost his cool during adult film actress Stormy Daniels’ testimony in his criminal hush money trial on Tuesday, cursing as she began describing the an alleged sexual encounter between the two, prompting a rebuke from Judge Juan Merchan.
“I understand that your client is upset at this point, but he is cursing audibly, and he is shaking his head visually and that’s contemptuous,” Merchan told Trump attorney Todd Blanche during a sidebar, NBC News reported, citing court transcripts.
The sidebar conversation came as Daniels was describing an encounter with Trump at a Lake Tahoe golf course that was sexual in nature, testifying that she spanked Trump with a rolled-up magazine in his hotel room.
Trump, on trial for allegedly falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 hush payment to Daniels, is barred by a gag order from speaking about witnesses outside the courtroom. Merchan said he would not tolerate any such behavior inside the Manhattan courthouse, either.
“It has the potential to intimidate the witness and the jury can see that,” Merchan told Blanche. “I am speaking to you here at the bench because I don’t want to embarrass him.”
Merchan instructed Blanche to speak with his client, stating that Trump had also “uttered a vulgarity” when Daniels began speaking about “The Apprentice," testifying that the former president repeatedly dangled an opportunity to appear on the show.
Merchan’s warning comes a day after he found Trump in contempt for a 10th violation of his gag order. To date, Trump has been fined for each violation, but Merchan said that jail time will be considered if he violates it again.
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