The judge in Donald Trump's hush money trial cleared the courtroom of reporters and threatened to remove a defence witness from the trial because of his behaviour on the stand, a court transcript shows. Judge Juan M Merchan told Robert Costello, a former federal prosecutor, that his conduct was "contemptuous right now" as tensions soared during Monday’s hearing. Mr Costello aggravated Mr Merchan repeatedly in his testimony by making comments under his breath and continuing to speak after objections were sustained - a signal to witnesses to stop talking. At one point, Mr Costello remarked "jeez" when he was cut off by an objection. He also called the whole exercise "ridiculous". An increasingly irate Mr Merchant asked Costello: ‘Are you staring me down?’ before clearing the courtroom. "I'm putting you on notice that your conduct is contemptuous," Mr Merchan said, according to the transcript of the conversation that occurred when the press was out of the room. "If you try to stare me down one more time, I will remove you from the stand." Mr Costello did not return a message seeking comment on Monday night. "The fact that I had to clear the courtroom and that the court officers,...