Former President Donald Trump was scolded by Judge Juan Merchan during his Manhattan hush money trial for audibly swearing while pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels testified about her and Trump’s alleged sexual encounter.
In the courtroom on Tuesday, Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche was told by Merchan, during a break in the middle of the day, to tell the former president to stop making vocal and visible reactions to Daniels’s testimony, according to the Washington Post.
“I understand that your client is upset at this point,” Merchan said on Tuesday. “But he is cursing audibly, and he is shaking his head visually, and that’s contemptuous. It has the potential to intimidate the witness, and the jury can see that.”
“I am speaking to you here at the bench because I don’t want to embarrass him,” he added. “You need to speak to him. I won’t tolerate that.”
Blanche told Merchan he would speak to Trump about the matter.
The 13th day in court featured detailed descriptions of Daniels and Trump’s alleged encounter in 2006, with the actress testifying as part of the hush money trial. The information offered up by Daniels was so detailed that Blanche requested a mistrial by alleging her testimony was “extraordinarily prejudicial.”
Merchan denied the motion for mistrial but did say he agreed that there are “some things better left unsaid.”
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Daniels will be back on the stand testifying the next day the court is in session, on Thursday. Wednesday will be the trial’s weekly day off.
The hush money case is Trump’s first of four expected criminal trials. The former president is navigating the courtroom and campaign trail as he seeks a second term in the White House, with a rematch against President Joe Biden in November.
