Judge Juan Merchan said he will not tolerate Trump’s swearing and head shaking during Daniels’ testimony, transcript shows

CNN
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The judge in Donald Trump’s secret trial called the former president’s defense lawyer into court and ordered him to speak to his client about his “despicable” behavior during adult film actress Stormy Daniels’ testimony on Tuesday, according to with the trial transcript.

“I understand that your client is upset right now, but he is swearing loudly and shaking his head visually and that is dismissive,” Judge Juan Merchan told Trump defense attorney Todd Blanche during a mid-trial break. morning. “It has the potential to intimidate the witness and the jury can see that.”

Early in the morning, Daniels began walking the jury through her 2006 encounter with Trump in his hotel room, where the adult film star says she slept with Trump. Daniels was paid $130,000 to prevent her from publicly airing her claim before the 2016 election, and the alleged reimbursement payment Trump made to his former lawyer Michael Cohen is at the center of the allegations against the former president. Trump denied the affair and declared himself innocent.

Merchan told Blanche that they were speaking in court because the judge didn’t want to embarrass Trump.

Blanche responded that she would talk to Trump.

“You need to talk to him. I will not tolerate this,” Merchan said.

Blanche said again that she would talk to Trump.

“I once noticed when Ms. Daniels was testifying about rolling up the magazine and probably hitting her client, and after that [Trump] shook his head and looked down. And later, 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.

Blanche said she would talk to Trump during the break.

On Tuesday morning, Daniels recounted first meeting Trump at a celebrity golf tournament and the events leading up to her alleged encounter with the former president in his Lake Tahoe hotel room, which she described in detail. She also recounted the approximately two-hour conversation at the hotel suite’s dining room table, including discussion of her career as an adult film star and the possibility of her being a contestant on the reality show “Celebrity Apprentice.”

Daniels then told jurors that she “spanked” a “rude, arrogant and pompous” Trump “right on the ass” with a copy of one of her magazines. After that, she said, the former president “was much more polite.”

CNN’s Jeremy Herb, Lauren del Valle and Kara Scannell contributed to this report.