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In a private conversation Tuesday with prosecutors and Donald Trump’s lawyers, the judge overseeing the former president’s hush-money trial rebuked him for “cursing audibly” during Stormy Daniels’s testimony.
New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan said Trump’s behavior might have the effect of intimidating Daniels — who was testifying as a key witness in the case — and threatened to hold him in contempt of court once 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.”
Daniels, at that point in her testimony, had begun telling the story of going to the bathroom while meeting with Trump in his suite after a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, California — which she later testified was a prelude to Trump having sex with her.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office alleges that Trump falsified business records to cover up a $130,000 hush-money payment to Daniels ahead of the 2016 election to keep her silent about the sex — something Trump vehemently denies.
In the private sidebar conversation, which was included in the trial transcript Business Insider obtained, Merchan also criticized Trump’s reaction to an anecdote Daniels gave about smacking him on the behind with a magazine.
During the conversation that evening in Trump’s hotel room, the real estate mogul had bragged about being on the cover of a recent financial magazine, Daniels testified.
“I said, ‘Someone should spank you with that,'” Daniels testified. “‘That’s the only interest I have in that magazine.'”
“I don’t think he thought I would do it. So, he rolled it up and gave me the look that he dared me to do it,” Daniels continued. “So, now I kind of had to.”
Upon further prodding from prosecutor Susan Hoffinger, Daniels elaborated.
“I took it from him and said, turn around. And I swatted him,” she said.
“Where do you swat him?” Hoffinger asked.
“Right on the butt,” Daniels testified.
Merchan, in the sidebar conversation, said Trump reacted to that story inappropriately.
“One time I noticed when Ms. Daniels was testifying about rolling up the magazine, and presumably smacking your client, and after that point he shook his head and he looked down,” Merchan said.
The judge also said Trump “uttered a vulgarity” when Daniels testified about “The Apprentice.” Daniels had testified that Trump offered to have her on the NBC show, but that the promise never came to fruition.
“I think he was looking at you, Mr. Blanche, later when we were talking about ‘The Apprentice,’ at that point he again uttered a vulgarity and looked at you this time,” Merchan said.
Merchan has previously issued a gag order preventing Trump from talking about witnesses or jurors, out of concern that they could be threatened.
The judge, earlier this week, found that Trump violated the gag order a total of 10 times and threatened to jail him.
“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 Tuesday.
It’s not the first time Trump has acted out in court while a woman testified about an encounter with him.
During E. Jean Carroll’s second civil trial against Trump, earlier this year, US District Judge Lewis Kaplan repeatedly told Trump to quiet down and “keep your voice down” during Carroll’s testimony, threatening to kick him out of the courtroom. Jurors in a previous case had found Trump liable for sexually abusing her in the mid-1990s.
According to Carroll’s lawyers, Trump had heckled Carroll during her testimony.
“Mr. Trump has the right to be present here. That right can be forfeited, and it can be forfeited if he is disruptive, which what has been reported to me consists of, and if he disregards court orders,” Kaplan said during the January trial.
“Mr. Trump, I hope I don’t have to consider excluding you from the trial or at least from the presence,” Kaplan then told Trump in open court. “I understand you’re probably very eager for me to do that.”
“I would love it,” Trump responded.
Merchan took a more tailored approach to Trump’s disruptions, telling Blanche at the sidebar conference Tuesday to “talk to him.” The judge said he wasn’t speaking directly to Trump himself because he didn’t want “to embarrass him.”
“You need to speak to him,” Merchan said. “I won’t tolerate that.”
After Trump and his lawyers returned from the break, Blanche assured the judge he had spoken to his client.
This story has been updated.
