Several reporters claimed they saw former President Donald Trump (middle) falling asleep while attending the first day of his hush money trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on Monday (Picture: Reuters)
Former President Donald Trump has been ridiculed for reportedly appearing to fall asleep during his hush money trial – and his lawyer has hit back with a bizarre explanation.
Trump was nicknamed ‘Sleepy Don’ after New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman wrote from the first day in the courtroom that he ‘appears to be sleeping’ and ‘his head keeps dropping down and his mouth goes slack’.
His lawyer Alina Habba – who represented him in another case but rebranded herself as his legal adviser ‘spitting the truth’ for this one – addressed the sleeping claims on Tuesday night.
‘I was not there. I find that a remarkable story at best,’ Habba told Newsmax, then offered her unexpected take.
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‘President Trump, you know he reads a lot.’
Habba added that she did not know what Trump was doing, and that there were no cameras allowed in Manhattan Criminal Court but she wished they were.
‘He’s been sitting there as he’s forced to at the threat of going to jail if he’s not sitting there, for what I assume would be a very mundane day, they are going through jury selection,’ she continued.
‘There were a tremendous amount of emotions being heard yesterday. But no, I wasn’t there so I can’t comment on that. I find that to be a ridiculous thought though.’
Donald Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, said ‘he reads a lot’ when asked if her client was sleeping in court (Picture: AP)
Habba also told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum that ‘it’s unlikely’ that Trump fell asleep.
‘I know him. I sat through trial after trial with him. That never happens. So President Trump is incredibly focused,’ she said.
‘If anything, he’s probably brutally bored.’
Several other reporters including Reuters’ Jack Queen, Courthouse News’ Erik Uebelacker and Law360’s Stewart Bishop said they observed Trump seemingly dozing off.
Courtroom sketch shows former President Donald Trump (middle) sitting at the defense table beside his lawyer Emil Bove during jury selection in his trial on Tuesday (Picture: Reuters)
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment from Metro.co.uk on reports of Trump sleeping, but told the Independent: ‘This is 100% Fake News coming from “journalists” who weren’t even in the court room.’
Trump has been charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with arranging for his former lawyer to pay porn star Stormy Daniels to silence her on an alleged affair.
By the end of the second day of the trial on Tuesday, seven jurors were selected including an English teacher, an information technology worker, a sales professional, a software engineer, an oncology nurse and two lawyers. Eleven more people still need to be picked and the jury selection process will continue on Thursdsay.
Trump is the first former or sitting US president to face a criminal trial.
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