Woman arrested for disrupting Trump civil fraud trial
NEW YORK - A woman was arrested on Wednesday for disrupting Donald Trump's civil fraud trial after she approached the former US president in court saying she wanted to "assist him," a court spokesman said.
The woman, a court employee, was "safely escorted" out of the Manhattan courtroom by officers and has been charged with contempt and immediately placed on administration leave pending an investigation, spokesman Lucian Chalfen said.
The woman, who was not identified, "disrupted the proceedings by standing up and walking towards the front of the courtroom and yelling out to Mr. Trump indicating she wanted to assist him," Chalfen said in a statement.
She was "stopped by court officers before she got near Mr. Trump or any of the attorneys or other litigants," the spokesman said, adding that "none of the parties were ever in any danger."
Trump did not seem concerned by the incident, and appeared to only learn of it when speaking to reporters later.
"Who got arrested? We don't know anything about it," he said.
"You know who should be arrested?" he asked. "The attorney general should be arrested. For what she's doing."
New York's attorney general Letitia James has accused Trump, his sons Eric and Don Jr and other executives of the Trump Organisation of colossally inflating the value of their real estate assets in order to receive more favorable bank loans and insurance terms.
Trump does not risk going to jail in the fraud trial, but James is seeking $250 million in penalties and the removal of the former president and his sons from the management of the family empire.
Trump attended the three opening days of the trial and returned again this week, complaining during breaks in the proceedings that he was being "railroaded" by Democratic prosecutors seeking to derail his 2024 White House bid.
But he indicated he would likely not appear again Thursday, because he will be busy with the LIV international golf tournament at one of his properties near Miami.
"It's the big final tournament of the year," he said. - AFP
