by The judge presiding over Donald Trump’s hush money trial has fired back at his attorney’s attempts to avoid punishment for his comments about the jury — remarks that appear likely to violate a gag order barring him from public attacks on witnesses and jurors.
On Thursday, New York Judge Juan Merchan grew more frustrated with arguments from defense attorney Todd Blanche, who claimed it was “political persecution” and a “political trial” in a politically biased “jurisdiction” against the former president. the test.
Judge Merchan cut him off.
“Did he violate the gag order? That’s what I want to know,” he said. “He talked about the jury, right? And he said that the jury was 95 percent Democratic and that the jury was rushed through, and the implication was that this was not a fair jury?”
Earlier this month, while awaiting a judge’s decision on whether to impose sanctions on previous violations of a gag order, Manhattan prosecutors accused Mr. Trump of violating the order four times within three days of first the week of the trial – including statements made immediately outside the trial. the doors of the court – and a statement aimed at the jury who now sat across from him.
On Tuesday, he was fined $9,000 for nine more violations and threatened with jail time if he keeps it up.
Prosecutors are now asking the judge to fine him $1,000 for each of the four new alleged violations.
On April 22, during a nearly nine-minute statement in the courtroom, Mr. Trump said that his former lawyer and trial witness Michael Cohen “wasn’t very good in many ways in terms of representation” and that Cohen was “caught in a lie . , flat out lie” during Mr. Trump’s civil fraud trial down the street.
Judge Merchan noted that when Mr. Trump walks over to reporters in the courthouse to deliver a few-minute press conference, “it’s not the press who went to him. It went to the press.”
“You’re telling me the exam is scary. Nobody is telling your client where to stand that day,” Judge Merchan said Tuesday.
“Judge,” said Mr. Blanche, pausing briefly. “I agree with that.”
Mr. Trump Trump also lashed out at Cohen during an 11-minute interview with a Pennsylvania television station that aired on April 23.
“Michael Cohen is a convicted liar and has no credibility,” he said.
“This is the most important time, the time to protect the event,” Assistant District Attorney Christopher Conroy told the judge Thursday.
Mr. Blanche said Mr. Trump can’t just say “no comment” over and over again.”
He also drew several social media posts from Cohen, which are “inviting and almost daring Trump to respond to everything he’s saying,” he said.
In one post, Cohen told Mr Trump: “Trouble with me Donald and I won’t send any money to your commissioner.”
Another post showed an image of Mr Trump in an orange superhero costume with the caption “Super Victim.”
Mr. Blanche also cited a post by Cohen calling Mr. Trump “Von ShitzInPantz,” an interview with Politico in which he called Mr. Trump a liar, and Cohen’s “late night” TikTok videos discussing the case and Mr. Trump’s campaign.
“This is not a man who needs the protection of a gag order,” Mr Blanche said.
In an interview with the far-right Real American’s Voice network, Mr. Trump said the jury was “picked so quickly — 95 percent of Democrats.”
“The area is mostly all democrats. You think of it as – just a Democratic area. It’s a very unfair situation I can tell you,” he said.
He made the comments after the jury had been selected – and after the judge admitted Mr Trump in court for making “audible” and “gestic” comments to a juror.
“I will not accept it. There will be no intimidation of jurors in this courtroom,” the judge said on April 16. “I want to make that crystal clear.”
On April 23, hours before the first National Enquirer publisher David Pecker resumed his trial testimony, Mr. Trump said that “David” was “very nice” and “a nice guy.”
“The defendant knows what he is doing. The defendant talks about the witness giving evidence, says nice things and does it in front of the camera,” Mr Conroy told the judge on Thursday.
It is “deliberate and calculated,” he said. “Pecker, be nice. Anyone else hearing this, I have a platform. … [The statements are] Deliberate shots across the bow to anyone who comes into this courtroom to talk about the defendant and talk about what he did.”
At his rallies in Wisconsin and Michigan on Wednesday, Mr. Trump appeared to avoid violating the gag but took shots at the judge, who, along with the prosecutors, is fair. The gag prevents him from speaking out about witnesses, jurors, court staff and their families.
In Wisconsin, he called Judge Merchan “crooked” and “conflict.”
“I have to do two of these things a day. You know why? Because I’m in New York all the time with the Biden trial,” Mr. Trump said in Michigan, repeating a baseless conspiracy that has President Joe Biden leading his criminal cases. “It’s a mock trial. They do it to try to take away your powers, to try to take away your candidate.”
So far, the former president has been fined $24,000 for violating trial gag orders in his criminal case and in his civil fraud trial, where Judge Arthur Engoron imposed $15,000 in penalties for Mr. Trump’s remarks about his court staff. Mr. Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, cut a check to the court on behalf of her client.
