State Lawyer Tells Judge To Silence Trump After He Interrupts Witness in Heated Fraud Trial Exchange

An attorney for the state asked the judge to silence former President Donald Trump after Trump interrupted a witness during a heated exchange at his fraud trial.

On Wednesday morning, Trump showed up for a second straight day for his trial in the fraud case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James and presided over by Judge Arthur Engoron.

During a break in the proceedings, Trump told reporters that he had struck a knockout blow in court that would soon lead the case — in which Trump has already been ruled liable for fraud — to soon be dismissed.

“This was like Perry Mason,” Trump said.

Trump was likely referring to an exchange in which his attorneys accused a witness of “perjury” — and during which an excited Trump interrupted the testimony and drew an objection from attorney for the state Kevin Wallace.

Trump, who has been sitting at the counsel table with his attorneys Chris Kise and Alina Habba, had a noticeable response when real estate appraiser Doug Larson denied having conversations with Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney about the value of Trump’s 40 Wall Street property in 2013.

The former president made an inaudible comment, tapped on the table, and conferred with his lawyers.

That prompted state attorney Kevin Wallace to ask Judge Engoron to tell Trump to refrain from making comments.

“Can the defendant please stop commenting during the witness’ testimony?” Wallace said. “I believe exhortations are audible on this side of the courtroom as well.”

Engoron declined to specifically tell Trump to refrain from commenting, instead saying, “I will ask everyone to be quiet when the witness is testifying.”

At issue, essentially, was the definition of what “worked with” is — Larson testified Tuesday that he had not “worked with” Trump Org executive McConney on valuing a Trump property.

But on Wednesday, Trump lawyers produced emails in which the two discussed the fact that Larson’s advice would be used for such valuations — a distinction that Larson maintained did not make him a perjurer.

Watch Trump’s remarks above via Reuters.