The federal judge presiding over Donald Trump’s defamation trial on Wednesday warned the former president that he has the right to throw him out of the courtroom if he continues making audible statements during the proceedings.
"Mr. Trump has the right to be present here. That right can be forfeited and it can be forfeited if he is disruptive," U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan told the former president before the trial broke for lunch Wednesday.
"Mr. Trump, I hope I don’t have to consider excluding you from the trial. I understand you are probably very eager for me to do that," Kaplan said.
"I would love it. I would love it," Trump responded and waved his hands.
"I know you would because you just can’t control yourself in this circumstance," Kaplan responded.
The warning from the judge came after Shawn Crowley, an attorney for plaintiff E. Jean Carroll, raised the issue of Trump speaking loudly enough to potentially be in earshot of the jury.
Crowley told Judge Kaplan that she heard Trump speak to his attorney during Carroll’s testimony, which began Wednesday morning.
Trump told his attorney that the allegation "really is a con job" and is a "witch hunt," Crowley told the judge.
Carroll has been testifying under direct examination for hours Wednesday, telling jurors that her life was upended by Trump’s defamatory statements about her after she accused him in 2019 of raping her in the mid-1990s.
Former US President Donald Trump leaves Trump Tower for Manhattan federal court for the second defamation trial against him, in New York City on January 17, 2024. Charly TRIBALLEAU / AFP
Judge Kaplan also repeatedly admonished Habba during the proceeding, including during a testy exchange at the beginning of the day before the jury entered the courtroom.
The judge told Habba to “sit down” after the attorney raised her request for an adjournment tomorrow so Trump could attend the funeral of his mother-in-law. Judge Kaplan had previously denied the request.
Trump and his attorneys have sparred with judges who are overseeing his various criminal and civil legal issues across the country.
At his recent civil trial in State Supreme Court in New York, Judge Arthur Engoron fined the former president twice for violating a gag order that barred Trump from making public comments about the judge’s law clerk.