Trump co-defendant warned he could be removed from court after laughing at testimony

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A co-defendant in the sprawling election interference case against former president Donald Trump in Georgia was warned he could be removed from the courtroom after he laughed during testimony.

David Shafer, the former chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, was reprimanded on Thursday during a hearing about the misconduct allegations against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

Ms Willis, who is overseeing the Georgia election interference case against Mr Trump, has recently faced ethics concerns over her romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor hired to lead the case.

The hearing heard motions brought by Mr Trump’s defence attorneys, who are seeking to have Ms Willis removed from the case.

Mr Wade took the stand during the hearing, at one point facing questions about vacations the two took together and how they were paid for. Mr Wade said he booked travel with his credit card, and Ms Willis paid him back in cash.

At this point, in a livestream of the hearing, Mr Shafer could be heard laughing aloud.

"Mr Shafer, you’ll step out if you do that again," Judge Scott McAfee warned him.

A Georgia grand jury indicted Mr Trump, as well as 18 others, in August, over allegations that he attempted to overturn the state’s 2020 election results.

The case centres in part on a phone call between Mr Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger just days before Biden’s inauguration. In leaked audio of the call published by the Washington Post, Mr Trump threatened and berated Mr Raffensperger and urged him to "find" more votes so he could win.

Mr Trump, who is the first and only former or sitting president to be criminally charged, faces a total of 91 felony counts across his four criminal indictments by state and federal prosecutors.

He has pleaded not guilty to every charge in each case and has accused prosecutors of “election interference” and an attempt to derail his 2024 run for a second term in the Oval Office.