Trump Fraud Trial Judge Wins Staring Contest With Pool Cameras — Trump a Close Second

Judge Arthur Engoron won an impromptu staring contest with the pool camera at former President Donald Trump’s fraud trial, with Trump a close second, and Trump attorney Alina Habba coming in dead last.

Trump was in court once again Wednesday for his trial in the fraud case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James and presided over by Judge Engoron. Also in court — for a second day — was former Trump fixer-turned-star witness Michael Cohen.

The judge became something of a polarizing social media star when pool cameras first caught him off guard at the start of the trial and he performed an exaggerated double-take.

On Wednesday morning, pool cameras — as they have every day — entered the courtroom to capture editorial images before the day’s proceedings began, and this time featured uncomfortably long shots of the participants. Trump maintained a hard stare, while AG James met the camera’s gaze with a lighter expression, and Habba looked away several times in discomfort.

But the judge locked eyes with the pool camera and never once flinched —  perhaps a preview of the day’s events.

Engoron’s gag order prohibiting Trump from attacking the court’s staff — which was prompted by another Trump Truth Social post in which he attacked the judge’s principal law clerk — had already cost Trump $5,000.00 in fines and a threat of imprisonment from the judge.

Just before Trump entered the courtroom, he spoke to reporters on a variety of topics, including a brief and familiar rant about the charges against him and Cohen.

Trump later emerged from the courtroom and went on a several-minute rant attacking Cohen, the prosecutor, and the fraud trial itself. Then, as Trump emerged with his lawyers to go back into court, a reporter shouted to him about the gag order, asking “President Trump, did you violate the gag order just now?”

As it turns out, he had, by attacking the judge and “a very partisan person sitting alongside of him” — which the judge took correctly as a reference to the clerk Trump had previously attacked.

The judge hauled Trump up to the witness stand and asked him to whom he was referring, and did not find his answer — claiming it was Michael Cohen — to be credible, fining Trump $10,000.00.

Watch above via Reuters.