Trump critic and MSNBC star Lawrence O’Donnell yesterday and today attended the criminal trial of former President Donald Trump in Manhattan, where the presumptive GOP nominee faces 34 felony count for allegedly falsifying business documents to cover up payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 presidential election.
Journalists in the courtroom noted that when Trump left the courtroom yesterday, he “squinted strangely” at O’Donnell. O’Donnell said he was told by the other journalists that “it was the strangest thing they’ve seen him do in the courtroom.”
“The most studious avoidance of eye contact I think I’ve ever seen.”
WATCH: @Lawrence describes his strange encounters with Donald Trump inside the courtroom. pic.twitter.com/g9ZBRQVGJQ
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) May 3, 2024
At another recess, while sitting in the audience on the aisle, O’Donnell reported that Trump stared at him “in what I’m sure he thought was an intimidating look.” O’Donnell added, “It became a crazy look. It was just a crazy face.” He added, “It was very peculiar.”
On his evening show on MSNBC, O’Donnell said Trump shouldn’t have done that, that “he shouldn’t have given the whole room this hateful reaction…and letting everyone see how much just the presence of another person in that audience got to him.”
O’Donnell laughed, “Of course today, he took my instruction” from the show the night before and, O’Donnell said of Trump, “he studiously avoided looking at me.”