The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s defamation trial threatened to exclude him from court after he was accused of calling the case a “witch hunt” in earshot of the jury.

Mr Trump, 77, had already been found liable for sexually abusing and defaming E Jean Carroll in a civil trial last year. Judge Lewis Kaplan banned the former president from denying the assault happened in front of jurors hearing a second defamation case this week.

The new case in a Manhattan court focuses on comments he made in 2019 accusing Ms Carroll of making up the allegations to sell books.

On Wednesday, Ms Carroll’s lawyer Shawn Crowley complained that Mr Trump had been making loud comments to his legal team discrediting the 80-year-old while she was on the witness stand.

Mr Kaplan had initially urged Mr Trump to “take special care when conferring with counsel so the jury does not overhear”.

But when the federal court in New York broke for lunch Ms Crowley told the judge Mr Trump had continued making “many statements” during Ms Carroll’s testimony, such as “it really is a witch hunt” and “it really is a con job”.

She added that Mr Trump said “it’s true” after the court was shown a video he shared on Truth Social last year in which he said he had “no idea” who Ms Carroll was.

Mr Kaplan said that while Mr Trump “has the right to be present here, that right can be forfeited” if he is “disruptive” and “disregards court orders”.

He added: “Mr Trump, I hope I don’t have to consider excluding you from the trial.”

Mr Trump, who was sitting at the defence bench, threw his hands up in response.

The judge then added: “I understand you’re probably eager for me to do that.”

The Republican frontrunner shot back, saying: “I would love it.”

“I know you would,” Mr Kaplan said. “You just can’t control yourself in this circumstance apparently.”

On the second day of the trial the court heard how Mr Trump’s claims that Ms Carroll was a liar who made up allegations that he sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman fitting room in 1996 had impacted the journalist.

Ms Carroll, who is seeking more than $10million in damages, said Mr Trump meant she was “too ugly to assault” when he said “she’s not my type” in 2019.

Ms Carroll also described how she struggled to get up in the morning and began avoiding mirrors after she started receiving thousands of emails attacking her appearance.

The court was shown several messages sent to Ms Carroll which threatened violence, including one which called for her to be publicly executed and others that warned she would be raped.

Ms Carroll said the messages “have never stopped” and she still gets “scores and scores” of emails, “sometimes hundreds a day”.

Fearing for her safety, she bought bullets for a gun she had inherited from her father which she now keeps by her bed, she said.

Asked about one of Mr Trump’s statements in which he said Ms Carroll must “pay dearly” for her claims, she said she had “paid just about as dearly as is possible to pay”.