The exasperated judge told the former president's attorneys they needed to "control” their client, and “if you can’t, I will.”
Former President Donald Trump spent a tense day on the witness stand in the trial to decide what the penalty would be in the civil fraud case against him and his company.
While heading into the courthouse Trump made a “my lips are sealed” gesture, but once he took to the stand he was anything but tight-lipped.
From the moment he took the witness stand, the former president clashed with Judge Arthur Engoron and gave long-winded answers to simple yes or no questions.
"This is a very, very unfair trial. Very," Trump complained.
The exasperated judge told Trump’s attorneys they needed to "control” their client, and “if you can’t, I will.”
When lawyer Alina Habba told the judge that he should listen to Trump's rants, Engoron snapped, telling her to “sit down.”
“I was told to sit down today. I was yelled at and I've had a judge who is unhinged slamming a table. Let me be very clear, I don't tolerate that in my life, I'm not going to tolerate it here,” Habba said outside the courthouse.
With the tensions so high in the courtroom, a 15-minute recess was called less than an hour into the proceedings to give time to cool off.
Despite the break, Trump came back with the same attitude, calling the trial “a political witch hunt” and calling the attorney general a “fraud.”
The latest polling results may have given Trump the confidence to be so bold in the court. The new polls are showing Trump slightly pulling ahead of President Joe Biden for the 2024 presidential election.
With the polls now showing Trump taking five of the six battleground states, top Democrats are nervous about the election and whether Biden should reconsider his run.
“Democrats are not happy with these poll numbers but at the same time nobody is looking to push President Biden out,” CBS News chief election & campaign correspondent, Robert Costa says. “At this point, it's going to be President Biden’s decision about what he wants to do with his own future and everyone close to the president tells me he’s in this race and he’s not getting out.”
Ivanka Trump is set to take the stand in the civil fraud trial on Wednesday.
