Law professor Alan Dershowitz argued that a witness in Donald Trump's hush money case had a "constitutional right" to taunt the judge.
On Wednesday, Dershowitz told Real America's Voice that he was there when Justice Juan Merchan cleared the courtroom and accused defense witness Robert Costello of giving him "side eye" and staring him down. The judge called the behavior "contemptuous."
"Well, the judge cleared the courtroom of everybody, including the media. For some reason, I didn't get cleared," Dershowitz recalled.
"So I ended up sitting there literally in the front row, looking the judge right in the eye and watching as he excoriated this very distinguished lawyer, Bob Costello, and threatened him and threatened Trump, and said, if you ever raise your eyebrows or stare at me again.
"He sounded like the character out of Taxi Driver, you're looking at me, you're looking at me, if you ever look at me again like that, I will strike all your testimony."
"Donald Trump didn't do anything wrong, and he threatened to deny the defendant his Sixth Amendment right to put on a defense if somebody raised an eyebrow at him," he continued. "First of all, everybody in the world has the constitutional right to raise an eyebrow."
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Co-host Gina Loudon told Dershowitz that her background in psychology gave her the impression that the judge needed a mental competency test.
"I never heard of that," the law professor admitted, "but when I saw this judge saying, are you looking at me? You're giving me the eye, it reminded me of the psycho in Taxi Driver."
"You remember?" he asked. "Are you looking at me? Are you looking at me?"
"You know, not the way normal people react, and certainly judges are supposed to have a thick skin."
