U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mukasey, who is presiding at the trial, had imposed a gag order against discussing the issues in the case.

Michael Gorelick, a law partner at New York-based Abrams, Gorelick, Friedman & Jacobson, PC, said if Mr. Silverstein is found in contempt of court, "there is a tremendous range of sanctions, a very broad range of option, available to the judge if he wants to impose sanctions for the contempt."

Judge Mukasey said he would rule on the contempt charges Monday.

According to federal statutes, possible penalties for contempt charges can include a compensatory fine in the amount of the attorneys' fees, as well as "a coercive fine" that would be applicable if similar incidents occur in the future.

Under an unlikely scenario, the judge may even declare a mistrial, if he feels the other side can no longer get a fair trial because of the violation of a gag order.

Before the contempt hearing even began, Judge Mukasey had also announced he would be taking "some precautionary measures." He decided that "henceforth, Mr. Silverstein will not sit in the courtroom," and will have to rely on his representatives to keep him informed about the trial's progress. "I have to control people here in my courtroom," said the judge. "Apparently there is so much money at stake here, people are willing to do anything."

The lawyers for Mr. Silverstein urged the judge not to go on with the contempt hearing because of the danger of influencing jurors through negative publicity. Mr. Silverstein said on the stand that he had misunderstood the judge's instructions, and thought that on or around March 10, the gag order had been modified.

During a Ground Zero news conference on March 15, Mr. Silverstein criticized his insurers in the case for refusing to pay him the $7 billion that he says he deserves. "We're trying to get them to fulfill the responsibilities that we paid for when we paid the premiums on the policies," he told reporters. But, he added, "instead of getting insurance, we've got ourselves a massive amount of litigation.

Speaking at the new 7 World Trade Center building currently under construction, Mr. Silverstein also said rebuilding the WTC site would cost roughly $12 billion, much higher than some earlier estimates. "We're fighting hard with the insurance companies to achieve the money that's going to be necessary [to rebuild]," he said.