Trump has repeatedly attacked the judge as “highly conflicted” outside court, but on Friday he sharpened those attacks against Justice Juan Merchan.

“You saw what happened to some of the witnesses that were on our side, they were literally crucified by this judge – who looks like an angel but he’s really a devil,” he said.

“He looks so nice and soft. People say ‘Oh he seems like such a nice man’ – no, unless you saw him in action.”

Referring to Robert Costello, a defence witness, Trump said: “You saw that with a certain witness that went through hell.”

He added: “When we wanted to do things, he wouldn’t let us do those things. But when the government wanted something they got everything.”

Robert Costello

Trump claimed that Mr Costello – one of the two witnesses that the defence called – had been “literally crucified” by Justice Merchan.

Mr Costello had grown frustrated as the prosecution issued objections while he gave evidence, and was eventually reprimanded by the judge.

He sighed as Justice Merchan sustained multiple objections, muttered “ridiculous” directly into the microphone, and at one point said: “Jeez.” The judge eventually ordered the court to be cleared to warn Mr Costello, who had attempted to stare him down, about his “contemptuous” behaviour.

“The judge was a tyrant and you got to see that with Bob Costello – a fine man,” Trump said.

“I’ve never seen anything like it… anybody that was in the media if you’re fair you’ll say wow that was anger, that was crazed. [Justice Merchan] was crazed.”

“The reason that Bob Costello acted a little bit upset, which I think he has a right to, was that every question he was being asked was being objected to by the other side.”

Defence witness

Trump claimed the trial was “very unfair” because “we weren’t allowed to use our election expert under any circumstances”.

He was referring to Bradley Smith, a former head of the Federal Election Commission, whom his defence had planned to call to speak about federal campaign finance law.

“We had the best expert, most respected expert, head of the Federal Election Commission, he was all set to testify, he was waiting for two days,” Trump said.

Justice Merchan said he would allow him to give evidence, but imposed limits on his testimony – saying it was not the job of a witness to interpret the law for a jury.

Mr Smith’s evidence would be restricted to “general definitions and terms”, such as what constitutes a contribution in campaign finance law, he ruled.

Alvin Bragg