Trump’s worst rebukes from New York judges all involved attacks on women

• Since October, Donald Trump has participated as a defendant in three trials in Manhattan.
• During these trials, judges repeatedly threatened him with prison or removal from the courtroom.
• His four worst legal reprimands all stemmed from his attacks on women in connection with his cases.

Since last fall, Donald Trump has sat at the defense tables in three Manhattan courtrooms. But Trump did not display ideal table manners.

During all three trials, Trump’s judges were so angered by his outbursts that they threatened to fine him, remove him from the courtroom and even throw him in jail.

Trump received the worst of these judicial rebukes in the same way, attacking people associated with his trials in statements he made inside or, in one case, just outside the courtroom.

Trump’s main targets — the people who sparked his four harshest reprimands from the bench — vary widely. These include a legal trainee, an advice columnist, a high school teacher and a porn star. But they have a lot in common.

Both made Trump look bad in front of an international press corps. Each angered Trump enough to take action against them despite the known risk of repercussions.

And each of the four is a woman.

“Women are his favorite target, whether in sexual assault or when he believes they are trying to intimidate him,” said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics.

A lawyer for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.

“That’s his modus operandi,” Walsh added.

Trump’s four most common rebukes

Allison Greenfield was the lead clerk in Trump’s civil fraud trial.

Trump attacked her so persistently last October, including in the courtroom hallway, that the judge called Trump to the stand, questioned him on the record about it, and then fined him $10,000.

It was a “flagrant, dangerous violation of a judicial order,” state Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron said of Trump’s attack on his clerk during a hallway press briefing.

Trump risked prison if he continued to attack the court clerk, who had been vocal in his push to rein in defense attorneys during pretrial hearings.

Greenfield declined to comment for this story.

E. Jean Carroll

Next, we turn to E. Jean Carroll, the advice columnist who won more than $90 million in judgments from Trump when he was found responsible for sexually abusing and defaming her.

At a federal civil trial in January, Judge Lewis Kaplan threatened to throw Trump out of the courtroom after he repeatedly — and audibly — heckled Carroll when she accused him of defamation during her testimony.

“Apparently you just can’t control yourself under these circumstances,” the federal judge chided Trump.

Carroll declined to comment for this story through her attorney, Roberta Kaplan, who is not related to the judge.

Cowbells herald a third Trump outburst

Fast forward to Trump’s hush money trial, where prosecutors predict they will wrap up their fourth and final week of testimony next week, with star witness Michael Cohen testifying on Monday.

Trump is accused of forging 34 invoices, checks and accounting entries in 2017. The fake ledgers concealed a $130,000 hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniel and illegally influenced the 2016 election, prosecutors allege.

As a criminal defendant, Trump has no choice but to attend this trial. He made his displeasure clear from the start when the jury was selected in mid-April.

A prospective juror, a middle-aged high school teacher, was questioned about videos she posted online after the election of Joe Biden in 2020 that showed people dancing in the streets of her Manhattan neighborhood.

“It seemed like a celebratory moment in New York City,” the school teacher told the judge as she uploaded the footage to her Facebook account.

Trump lost his temper as he watched clips of at least one person ringing a cowbell, gleefully sounding the death knell for his re-election hopes.

“He gestured and mumbled something. He was audible. He spoke toward the juror. I will not tolerate that,” state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan raised his voice to complain about Trump to defense attorney Todd Blanche.

“I will not intimidate any jury in this courtroom. I want to make that clear,” the judge added.

The woman, whose name was not released, was not selected for the jury.

Then there was Stormy Daniels

Trump’s latest severe legal rebuke came this week when he began harassing Daniels as she testified against him on Tuesday.

Daniels had just told the jury how he playfully hit Trump “on the butt” with a rolled-up magazine – and about his fascination with the porn business.

“Do you all hate each other?” She testified that Trump had asked her, describing a two-hour conversation in his hotel suite during a 2006 celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe.

“Do you guys sleep together off camera?” She said Trump asked.

Daniels hadn’t even made her most racist accusations when Merchan called defense attorneys to court and, in the presence of prosecutors, deferred to Trump.

“I understand that your client is upset at this point, but he is audibly cursing and visually shaking his head, and that is contemptible,” the judge told Trump’s lawyers during a break from Daniels’ testimony.

“It has the potential to intimidate the witness and the jury can see that,” the judge warned.

“You need to talk to him,” he told the defense. “I won’t tolerate that.”

The slamming of the magazine – Daniels told jurors she mocked Trump for bragging about being on the cover – had particularly angered the Republican front-runner.

“One time it occurred to me, when Ms. Daniels was testifying, that she rolled up the magazine and probably hit your client, and afterward he shook his head and looked down,” the judge said of Trump.

“And later, I think he looked at you, Mr. Blanche, later when we were talking about the apprentice. At this point he again uttered a vulgarity.”

Why women?

What makes the thought of a woman publicly opposing him make Trump so unable — or unwilling — to restrain himself that he risks being thrown out of court or in prison?

Is he helplessly losing his temper? Is he deliberately lashing out, perhaps thinking it won’t hurt his poll numbers, even with women?

Walsh of the Center for American Women and Politics thinks the latter is more likely.

“He prides himself on being a strong, macho man,” she said.

“Look, we know he defended himself for the Access Hollywood recording by saying it was locker room talk and boys will be boys,” she said.

“But he really walks around thinking he can grab women because of who he is,” she said.

An honorable mention for Michael Cohen

Trump is barred from making statements attacking jurors, witnesses and certain trial and prosecution staff or their families under an April 1 gag order.

Cohen – Trump’s former corporate and personal lawyer and now the key witness against him in the hush money trial – was by far the most frequent target of Trump’s online and verbal attacks.

Trump was also sanctioned for attacking the impartiality of the hush money trial jury, where men hold a 7-5 majority.

But despite fining Trump a total of $10,000 for violating his gag order, Merchan has found that Cohen, giving as good as he gets, is the one witness least in need of the order’s protection.

“I think he was just on TikTok on Wednesday night,” Blanche, the defense attorney, complained to Merchan before court broke for the week on Friday.

“He wore a white T-shirt with a picture of President Trump behind bars, wore an orange jumpsuit and discussed how he is now announcing he is running for Congress,” the defense attorney complained of Cohen.

“He has stated several times on social media that he will stop talking, but he doesn’t,” Blanche added.

Merchan agreed that Cohen needed to be reined in and ordered prosecutors to once again order him to stop making public statements about Trump and the case.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass told the judge he had tried repeatedly but would try again.

“Does he go after men, yes,” Walsh said of Trump.

“But women hold a special place for him. He clearly feels entitled to exercise this kind of intimidating and bullying power over women,” she said.

“He’s like a petulant teenager in a way. He doesn’t even understand or respect – ‘Hey, I’m in court’.”

Trump could certainly play to his base, meaning “those MAGA men and even some of the MAGA women,” Walsh said.

“In their eyes, he’s kind of the defender of the white men who are in charge and won’t take any nonsense from anyone,” she added.

“It’s hard to explain the women who support this behavior, but there are women who will never leave him.”