Judge Warns Trump Attorney About Audible ‘Cursing’ As Stormy Daniels Testifies

The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s hush money trial warned his lawyer Tuesday that the former president’s repeated cursing in court was verging on witness intimidation as adult film star Stormy Daniels testified at length in front of the jury.

New York state Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan called Trump attorney Todd Blanche to the stand for a sidebar during a trial break and warned him about his client’s “audible” swearing, according to court transcripts.

“I understand that your client is upset at this point,” Merchan told Blanche, say the transcripts, obtained by The Washington Post. “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,” Merchan added. “You need to speak to him. I won’t tolerate that.”

Blanche had a terse reply, saying: “I will talk to him.”

Trump is facing 34 felony charges related to hush money payments made to Daniels days before the 2016 presidential election. Prosecutors say Trump falsified business records to hide $130,000 in payments for a nondisclosure agreement that prevented Daniels from going public with her allegation of an extramarital affair with Trump in 2006.

Trump has vehemently rejected claims of an affair and has pleaded not guilty to all counts.

Daniels, a star witness for the prosecution, detailed her claims on Tuesday in court, saying the pair first had a sexual encounter in 2006 during a golf tournament in the Lake Tahoe area. She said Trump invited her to dinner but was wearing pajamas when she met him at his hotel suite. When she went to the bathroom, she said she emerged to find Trump on