A court employee was arrested on Wednesday after causing a disturbance during former President Donald Trump's civil fraud trial in New York. The woman, whose identity was not disclosed by state court spokesperson Lucian Chalfen, stood up and walked towards the front of the courtroom where Trump was seated. She was instructed by a court officer to return to her seat, but later had to be escorted out of the Manhattan courthouse by officers and was charged with contempt of court for disrupting the proceedings. Chalfen stated that the woman had been yelling out to Trump that she wanted to help, although reporters in the courtroom did not hear her raise her voice. As she was being removed from the building, she was heard screaming in the courthouse lobby. Chalfen assured that none of the parties involved were in any danger. The woman, who works in a different state courthouse, has been placed on administrative leave and is prohibited from entering state court facilities while an investigation takes place.

Meanwhile, the trial continued with another disruption caused by Trump himself. During the testimony of witness Doug Larson, a real estate appraiser, Trump grew frustrated and threw up his hands, grumbling to his lawyers. Judge Arthur Engoron warned Trump and others involved in the case to keep their voices down, particularly if it was meant to influence the testimony. Trump had been attending the trial for the past two days, interrupting his campaign activities in Iowa and New Hampshire. He had skipped last week's proceedings as he had to give a deposition in another lawsuit. In a previous ruling, Engoron had found Trump and his company, the Trump Organization, guilty of years of fraud by exaggerating asset values and net worth on financial statements used for business deals and loans. As punishment, a court-appointed receiver was ordered to take control of some Trump companies, but an appeals court has temporarily blocked this decision.

Outside the courthouse, Trump did not comment on the case, reserving his usual vitriol for a morning break. Inside the closed courtroom, however, Trump grew increasingly irritated during Larson's testimony. Trump's lawyers attempted to undermine the state's claims by highlighting discrepancies in Larson's valuations of a Trump-owned Wall Street office building. Larson defended his valuations, stating that they were accurate based on the information available at the time. The exchange led to Trump throwing up his hands in frustration.

The trial also saw heated exchanges between the defense and state lawyers. Trump's lawyers accused Larson of lying about his involvement in the valuation spreadsheets used in Trump's financial statements. The defense suggested that Larson could be at risk of perjuring himself and needed to be informed about his rights against self-incrimination. The state lawyers labeled these comments as "witness intimidation." After Larson was briefly escorted out of the courtroom, he was allowed to return and answer the question without any legal warning. Larson stated that he did not recall an email exchange from a decade ago and confirmed that he had provided input for the valuations.

Following Larson's testimony, Jack Weisselberg, the son of former Trump Organization finance chief Allen Weisselberg, took the stand. He testified about his involvement in arranging financing for Trump while working at Ladder Capital. The civil trial focuses on six claims made by New York Attorney General Letitia James, including allegations of conspiracy, insurance fraud, and falsifying business records. Judge Engoron, not a jury, will decide the case as state law does not allow for a jury in this type of lawsuit.

This latest incident in the courtroom is not the first clash between Trump and Judge Engoron. Earlier in the trial, Trump had maligned a key court staffer on social media, prompting the judge to issue a limited gag order preventing parties from smearing members of his staff. Last year, Engoron held Trump in contempt and fined him $110,000 for his slow response to a subpoena from James' office. Trump, however, claimed to have grown to like and respect Engoron but believed that Democrats were treating him unfairly.

Trump's presence at the trial attracted significant media attention and heightened security measures, including additional screening checkpoints and Secret Service agents lining the courtroom walls. This courtroom appearance followed a recent gag order in Trump's Washington, D.C., criminal case, prohibiting him from making statements that target prosecutors, potential witnesses, and court staff. Despite these developments, Trump remains confident in his innocence, claiming that the government has lied and failed to reveal all the evidence that would prove his innocence.