A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Donald Trump stormed out of a Manhattan courtroom yesterday. The former president left abruptly after a civil fraud trial descended into a series of shouted arguments. The judge refused Trump's motion to dismiss the case and then fined him for the second time in less than a week. NPR politics reporter Ximena Bustillo was at the courthouse.
XIMENA BUSTILLO, BYLINE: Donald Trump was fined $10,000 for violating a gag order in his civil fraud trial in New York after a judge questioned him on the stand about comments made yesterday morning by the former president during a break in the trial.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DONALD TRUMP: This judge is a very partisan judge with a person who's very partisan sitting alongside of him, perhaps even much more partisan than he is.
BUSTILLO: Judge Arthur Engoron unexpectedly called Trump up to the witness stand to question the former president. He inferred that Trump's statement was about his clerk, who sits to his right. Trump's lawyers and Trump himself argued that the former president was referring to Michael Cohen, his former lawyer and fixer who had testified against him. Trump has already been fined $5,000 for violating a gag order Engoron placed on all parties for speaking about his staff after a Truth Social post about the clerk was not taken down from Trump's campaign website. Trump and his associates are being sued by the state attorney general for allegedly inflating the value of their assets in order to land better business deals and benefits, like being listed on Forbes' Top 100 list.
Ximena Bustillo, NPR News, outside the New York County Supreme Court.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
