Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan ripped Donald Trump attorney Todd Blanche for suggesting to jurors that the former president could be sent to prison if convicted.
Blanche, in his closing argument, had told the jury: “You cannot send someone to prison based on the words of Michael Cohen.”
Prosecutors objected and the judge sustained it, striking the comment from the record, but jurors still heard it.
After jurors were sent out for lunch, prosecutors claimed the statement “was a blatant and wholly inappropriate effort to call sympathy for their client.”
A furious Merchan told Blanche that, as a longtime attorney and former prosecutor, he should have known better than to make the “outrageous” and “highly inappropriate” comment — as jurors are not allowed to take punishment into consideration when deliberating.
“That statement was outrageous,” the judge said.
“You know that making a comment like that is highly inappropriate. It’s hard for me to imagine that that was accidental.”
Merchan said he would talk to jurors about the exchange when trial resumes at 2 p.m.