Conservative attorney George Conway said Wednesday he does not think former President Trump has a “complete ability” to control his behavior inside a courtroom.
On Tuesday — during the second day of jury selection in Trump’s hush money criminal trial — New York Judge Juan Merchan admonished Trump for “audibly uttering something” during the questioning of a prospective juror.
“I won’t tolerate that,” Merchan said Tuesday. “I will not have any jurors intimidated in this courtroom. I want to make that crystal clear.”
In an interview Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Conway praised the way the judge handled the situation.
“It’s great that the judge is clamping down on that early, because his conduct in the courtroom is really — it’s very demonstrative, and it’s very emotional at times,” Conway said of Trump.
“I actually don’t think he has a complete ability to control himself. I think we saw that during the E. Jean Carroll trial. I think we’re going to see it again. And I think it’s important for the judge to give him warnings that he can’t do that in front of the jury,” Conway added.
Trump’s first of four criminal trials began this week in New York. He faces 34 criminal counts of falsifying business records in connection to reimbursements to his ex-fixer, Michael Cohen, who allegedly paid porn actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 ahead of the 2016 election to stay quiet about an affair she had with Trump years earlier. Trump has denied the affair and any wrongdoing.
Trump has frequented New York courtrooms numerous times in recent months related to two separate civil cases, and his behavior during the court proceedings has always been of keen interest to the press corps.
In January, Trump walked out of the courtroom at the start of closing arguments in the defamation case brought by writer E. Jean Carroll.
Conway pointed to Trump’s behavior during the Carroll trial — which ended with a $83.3 million verdict against Trump — as a sign of what Trump might do as the hush money trial proceeds, and he warned Trump might suffer as a result of it.
“But the fact is, to the extent he does that … in front of the jury, it shows disrespect for the jury and doesn’t necessarily help him. And that’s one of the reasons why, I think, that he was hit with that $83.3 million verdict during the second E. Jean Carroll trial is: He basically stood, he sat in front of the jury and just showed contempt for the entire process and contempt for the jury, which dovetailed nicely with what the other side was trying to prove, which was, ‘This is a bad guy who doesn’t respect anybody and anything, including the law,’” Conway said.
The Hill reached out to Trump’s campaign for a response.