Politics- Donald Trump's hush-money judge warned him against intimidating potential jurors in his trial.
- Trump was "muttering" and "audible" while one juror was being questioned, the judge said.
The judge presiding over Donald Trump's criminal hush-money trial angrily chastised the former president on Tuesday afternoon, telling his lawyer to keep him quiet during the jury selection and warning against intimidating potential jurors.
"He was gesturing and muttering something. He was audible. He was speaking in the direction of the juror. I will not tolerate that," New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan told Trump's lead lawyer, Todd Blanche, raising his voice.
"I will not have any jurors intimidated in this courtroom. I want to make that crystal clear," the judge added.
The warning came Tuesday afternoon, shortly after the questioning of a prospective juror over what Blanche called her "hostile" social-media posts.
Blanche suggested the prospective juror had earlier on Tuesday portrayed herself as able to be impartial. The defense pointed out videos posted to Facebook in which she referred to celebrations in the streets of New York City following now-President Joe Biden's 2020 electoral victory.
Merchan complained that the juror was "maybe 12 feet" from the defense table when Trump became "audible."
Merchan instructed Blanche to speak with Trump, sitting next to him, about "his behavior."
"My client is aware," Blanche told the judge after whispering into Trump's ear briefly.
Seven jurors — four men and three women — were selected by day's end on Tuesday. The trial is off on Wednesday, and jury selection is set to continue Thursday.
This isn't the first time Trump's gabbing has interrupted his courtroom proceedings. In E. Jean Carroll's second trial against him, over defamation damages, the judge in that case warned against Trump heckling Carroll while she was on the witness stand.
"I'm going to ask Mr. Trump to take special care to keep his voice down in conferring with his attorneys," US District Judge Lewis Kaplan said during the January trial.
Jurors handed Trump a loss in that case, ordering him to pay Carroll more than $80 million in damages.
Merchan has been keenly aware of the courtroom dynamics while interviewing prospective jurors, a process that's expected to last about two weeks.
The 12 jurors and six alternates are expected to hear about four weeks of testimony over allegations that Trump falsified business documents to cover up hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
On Monday, the first day of jury selection, Merchan said he'd change the proceedings so prospective jurors would be in the main courtroom while answering questions rather than being squeezed into his much-smaller robing room with lawyers and Trump himself.
"I am concerned that going into the jury room with an individual juror surrounded by all of these people is just going to be overly intimidating to that juror," he said Monday.