By Laura Dolan and Jack Forrest, CNN
The judge in Donald Trump’s hush money trial called the former president’s defense attorney to the bench and ordered him to speak to his client about his “contemptuous” behavior during adult film actress Stormy Daniels’ testimony Tuesday, according to the trial transcript.
“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,” Judge Juan Merchan said to Trump’s defense attorney Todd Blanche during a mid morning break. “It has the potential to intimidate the witness and the jury can see that.”
Earlier in the morning, Daniels had begun 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 keep her from going public before the 2016 election about her claim and the alleged reimbursement payment Trump made to his former lawyer Michael Cohen is at the heart of the charges against the former president. Trump has denied the affair and pleaded not guilty.
Merchan told Blanche they were speaking at the bench because the judge did not want to embarrass Trump.
Blanche responded that he would talk to Trump.
“You need to speak to him. I won’t tolerate that,” Merchan said.
Blanche again said he would talk to Trump.
“One time I noticed when Ms. Daniels was testifying about rolling up the magazine, and presumably smacking your client, and after that point [Trump] shook his head and he 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 he 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 their approximately two-hour conversation at the dining room table in his hotel suite, including discussing her career as an adult film star and the possibility of her being a contestant on the “Celebrity Apprentice” reality show.
Daniels then told jurors that she “spanked” a “rude, arrogant and pompous” Trump “right on the butt” with a copy of one of his magazines. After which, she said, the former president “was much more polite.”
CNN’s Jeremy Herb, Lauren del Valle and Kara Scannell contributed to this report.
