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As Stormy Daniels took the stand in Donald Trump’s hush money trial today, the judge in the case complained to the former president’s lawyer that he could hear his client “cursing audibly” about what was being said.
The judge, Juan Merchan, even suggested that Trump’s behavior put him again at risk of contempt of court.
“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’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, according to a transcript of a sidebar conversation between the two.
Merchan added, “It has the potential to intimidate the witness and the jury can see that.”
Blanche said that he would talk to Trump. The judge said that he wanted to speak to Blanche and not to Trump directly “because I don’t want to embarrass him.”
“You need to peak at him,” Merchan said. “I won’t tolerate that.”
Daniels testified that, after meeting Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in 2006, he invited her to his hotel room, where they had a long conversation before having sex. Trump has denied his claim.
Merchan said that at one point during Daniels’ testimony, as she recounted an incident in which she swatted Trump with a magazine, “he shook his head and he looked down.”
The trial centers on a $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels in advance of the 2016 presidential election. Prosecutors claim that Trump falsified business records to cover up the hush money payments, and that in turn violated federal election laws. Trump has denied having sex with Daniels and the charges against him.
