After Judge Juan Merchan wrapped up his instructions to the jury he had one last order for Donald Trump, his legal team and the prosecutors.
‘I do direct all of you to be please here,’ he said Wednesday, before heading for his robing room. ‘You cannot leave the building.’
It is another humbling moment for the man who was leader of the free world for four years and may yet be again after November’s election.
He held up traffic with his motorcade and closed airspace in Air Force One. But for the past five weeks in a New York courtroom, Trump has had to follow rules laid out by a judge and enforced by bailiffs.
He must be in place before the judge calls the court to order, and must get to his feet when the jury enters and leaves the room.
Now he must spend hours each day waiting in one of the fading courthouse’s meeting rooms for the seven men and five women of the jury to finish their deliberations.
He is stuck each day on the 15th floor of a crumbling courthouse where his aides have complained about the state of the restrooms and where an ‘asbestos