Laura Ingraham Scolded for Using Binoculars at Trump Trial

Never let it be said that Laura Ingraham isn’t prepared.

Present for day 17 of Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York, the host of The Ingraham Angle brought along a pair of binoculars, which aren’t, strictly speaking, banned in the courtroom. They are, however, banned when evidence is being shown to legal counsel before being presented to the jury—which is exactly when the Fox News host whipped them out.

Several court officers repeatedly tried and failed to get Ingraham’s attention as she stared through the binoculars, apparently zoned out. “Ma’am! You can’t use binoculars. No binoculars, ma’am. Ma’am. Hello!”

Roughly 10 seconds later, Ingraham came back to herself and realized she was being chastised. A Daily Beast reporter watched as she let out a surprised huff and threw the binoculars down.

The 60-year-old commentator appeared to spend much of the afternoon writing her opening monologue for that evening’s broadcast of The Ingraham Angle. Recent topics of discussion have included dissections of “Jughead” Michael Cohen’s testimony and the supposedly terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week that President Joe Biden is having.

Her mind apparently elsewhere on Tuesday, though, Ingraham also had to be repeatedly reminded not to openly use her cell phone, a frequent point of contention over the last two weeks in Justice Juan Merchan’s courtroom. The judge has largely allowed reporters to use their laptops and phones from an overflow room, although two have been expelled for taking photos on their phones.

Tuesday’s proceedings largely concerned the long-awaited cross-examination of Cohen, Trump’s onetime fixer and all-around go-to guy turned star witness in the government’s case against the former president.

The tone was set immediately by lead defense lawyer Todd Blanche, who approached and asked if it was true that Cohen had recently gone on TikTok to call him “a crying little shit.” Cohen began to respond that it sounded like something he might say before prosecutors leaped in to object and a sidebar was hastily called.

With showdowns like those, Ingraham should have plenty of material for Tuesday night’s episode—with or without the binoculars.

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