Trump Marches Out Of Contempt Hearing And Violates Gag Order Again

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(Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

As of 4pm on Wednesday, Justice Juan Merchan had not delivered a ruling following yesterday’s show cause hearing as to why Donald Trump should not be held in contempt for violating the gag order in his pending criminal trial.

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The hearing was brutal, with the judge warning Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche that he was “losing all credibility with the court.” Blanche continues to insist that there is an unwritten exception to the order for political responses, so Trump is free to abuse Michael Cohen or Stormy Daniels if they are mean to him first. Blanche also insisted that it was just “common sense” that Trump is free to repost articles saying things he himself could not, although he was unable to produce any caselaw to back up this proposition.

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Speaking to reporters, Trump defended himself by saying that he couldn’t possibly be expected to read a whole, entire article from the bottomless joybook his aide Natalie Harp generates for him on a portable printer. And how is it his fault if there’s a mention of a witness or juror like three paragraphs in.

Trump: “I look at headlines. All good headlines that the case is a sham. But I can’t read the whole thing. It’s like reading a novel. So I put an article in and then somebody’s name is mentioned, somewhere deep in the article, and then I end up in violation of a gag order.” pic.twitter.com/rFkjYkmiwl

— Republican Voters Against Trump (@AccountableGOP) April 23, 2024

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And meanwhile Chatty Cathy isn’t making the job easier for Blanche. Here he is flapping his yap about Cohen to a Pennsylvania ABC affiliate.

NEW: Trump’s Team let him do a lengthy interview with PA’s biggest TV station @6abc today.

It did not go well. In addition to some horrible abortion mansplaining, Trump:

– called the NY judge corrupt
– attacked witnesses personally
– committed to taking the stand at his trial pic.twitter.com/ePKckyQi76

— J.J. Abbott 🦅 (@jjabbott) April 23, 2024

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Asked about his “concern level” about Michael Cohen’s testimony, Trump replied that Cohen is “a convicted liar and he’s got no credibility whatsoever.”  This would appear to violate the court’s order barring Trump from “making or directing others to make public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses concerning their potential participation in the investigation or in this criminal proceeding.” And good luck to Todd Blanche arguing that Trump was responding to an attack by Cohen or just speaking generally, not specifically about Cohen’s participation in the trial.

Trump went on to repeat his social media post praising all the legal scholars who say that there’s no case here.

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Because if Dersh and Turley and McCarthy say it, and then your aide prints it out so you can read one paragraph and then post it online, then it must be true.

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Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos substack and podcast.

Topics

Courts, Crime, Donald Trump, Government, Juan Merchan