The judge in charge of Donald Trump’s hush-money trial told him off for “cursing audibly” during Stormy Daniels’s testimony on Tuesday in a secret meeting with prosecutors and Trump’s lawyers.
Judge Juan Merchan of the New York Supreme Court said that Trump’s actions might have scared Daniels, who was speaking as a key witness in the case, and threatened to hold him in contempt of court again.
“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. “It has the potential to intimidate the witness, and the jury can see that.”
At that point in her testimony, Daniels started to talk about going to the bathroom while meeting Trump in his suite after a golf event in Lake Tahoe, California. She later said that this was the first step toward Trump having relations with her.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office says Trump lied about business records to hide the fact that he paid Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about the alleged affair before the 2016 election. Trump strongly denies this.
Business Insider got a copy of the private sidebar chat where Merchan criticized Trump’s response to Daniels’ story about hitting him in the behind with a magazine.
Daniels said in court that Trump bragged about being on the cover of a recent business magazine while they were talking that night in Trump’s hotel room.
There was also a charge that Trump “uttered a vulgarity” when Daniels talked about “The Apprentice.” Daniels said that Trump promised to have her on the NBC show, but that the promise never came true.
Because Merchan was afraid that Trump might threaten witnesses or juries, he has previously put a gag order on him.
The judge said earlier this week that Trump broke the gag order 10 times and threatened to put him in jail.
“It appears that the $1,000 fines are not serving as a deterrent; therefore, going forward, this Court will have to consider a jail sanction if recommended,” Merchan told Trump on Tuesday.
There are other times when Trump acted out in court while a woman talked about a meeting she had with him.
In early this year, US District Judge Lewis Kaplan told Trump to “keep his voice down” during E. Jean Carroll’s second civil trial against Trump. He also threatened to kick Trump out of the courtroom if he didn’t. A former jury had found Trump guilty of sexually abusing her in the mid-1990s.
