Attorney Alina Habba, who is not part of Donald Trump's legal team overseeing hishush money trial defense, managed to temporarily disrupt the proceedings in the Manhattan courtroom on Wednesday.
Moments after Judge Juan Merchan started providing the 12-person jury with instructions on how to arrive at a verdict related to the 34 felony counts filed against the former president, Habba played a video on her phone which caused the judge to shoot her a look.
According to a report from CNN, trial attendees are not allowed to use their phones in the courtroom during the proceedings and Habba was out of line.
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While providing updates on the courtroom proceeding, CNN's Paula Reid reported, "Just now a phone went off in the courtroom; our colleagues are reporting that it appeared to be Alina Habba's phone playing a video."
As co-host John Berman laughed, she added, "Apparently the judge did not look, did not react, did not make a thing about it and she apparently put her away her phone."
"That's interesting," co-host Kaitlan Collins interrupted, "because Trump's team they've had their phones out. Anyone else, if you're sitting in the back of the room, including the DA's team from what I've seen, are not on their phones. You are not allowed to be on your phone, you can't even have your phone sitting next to you if on silent or even off. The court officers will tell you, put it away, and don't even bring it out."
'Yeah, but Trump's team, they sit right behind them and they often have their phones out doing various things, emails, but to have a video play in the middle of this historic moment when they're charging the jury? I mean, that's that's pretty poor form so hopefully that will not happen again," Reid replied.
"But the judge did shoot her a stern look in that direction, the way the noise was coming from and just moved on, which is probably the right way to handle it, right? This is a critical moment. You want to walk the jury through this incredible task they are about to undertake and not get distracted by something like that," she added.
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