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It’s only a matter of hours before Donald Trump approaches the judge who oversees the criminal case.
The cause is an easily predictable variable in this case: the defendant’s mouth.
The former US president blasted the judge, and the district attorney, in a speech on the day of his arrest, shortly after he received a warning in court about assault.
At least three separate sentences have been, or will be, given that this celebrity defendant has publicly stormed the court during the case. One was a gag order, which the judge did not enforce, but said he might reconsider. Another is certainty: the prohibition to discuss court evidence, according to the terms of the parties.
Violating one of them can result in contempt of court, which in the rarest and most severe cases can be punished by a short prison term.
Then there is a third punishment, more serious in this genre: a misdemeanor charge of obstructing government administrationby using intimidation or coercion to obstruct public proceedings.
A former New York City prosecutor who once worked on Trump’s case said the former president should avoid legal trouble with the allegations.
“The president is very close to that line,” Cyrus Vance told CNN after listening to Trump’s speech.
“If I were his lawyer, I would say, ‘Take it off.’ … What he said is very, very ill-advised, and disgusting, and wrong. … It’s also legally dangerous.”
WATCH | Trump says DA trash in speech:
In his first comments since being charged with 34 felonies on Tuesday afternoon, Donald Trump told supporters at Mar-a-Lago in Florida that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is the criminal, not him.
Did Trump really say, in a prime-time speech from Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday night, that some prosecutors are criminals who should be jailed for leaking details of the case to the media, an allegation Trump made without evidence.
He also referred to the judge as a Trump-hater, in a family of Trump-haters, and he identified the judge’s daughter who had campaigned for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Members of the Trump family also circulated pictures of the judge’s daughter on social media. Trump, in a speech, accused the judge of using tactics from the old Soviet Union.
What Trump said in court
This was hours after he was in the courtroom as the lawyers around him engaged in an extended conversation about maintaining discretion.
Trump was indicted on Tuesday on 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide payments intended to keep voters from learning about his affairs, in a case some observers called flimsy, and suggested it was the least of Trump’s legal problems.
One of the reasons Trump’s first court appearance took longer than expected: the parties discussed the above-mentioned issues at length.
Prosecutors show printouts of recent Trump comments. Trump recently warned of death and destruction if prosecuted, posted a photo of himself holding a baseball bat next to a picture of prosecutors, and held his first 2024 campaign rally in Waco, Texas, the site of a deadly standoff against government agents.
“We have significant concerns about the potential danger of this kind of rhetoric to our city, to potential jurors and witnesses, and to the judicial process,” said Manhattan prosecuting attorney Chris Conroy.
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche responded that his client was right to react with frustration over what he considered to be an unfair case.
He noted that the prosecution’s star witness, former Trump fixer Michael Cohen, is constantly speaking to the media, has written a book and is on a podcast.
Prosecutors did not seek a gag order. Members of the prosecution have warned, twice, that if Trump discusses non-public case material, he could be impeached.
A request, not an order
The judge, Juan Merchan, explained that he did not like the joke order. At this point, he said, he would oppose one even if asked. He called it a question of protecting the First Amendment’s right to free speech, especially when the defendant is president.
But then he gave a warning.
The judge said the parties had better not make comments that cause violence, or disorder, or endanger the rule of law, the case, or anyone’s safety.
If he doesn’t refuse, Merchan warns, he may reconsider.
WATCH | Trump has pleaded not guilty:
Former US president Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records, which were allegedly part of a plan to cover up payments to women during the 2016 presidential election campaign.
“This is a request I’ve made. I’m not making an order,” said Merchan.
“But now that I’ve made a request, if I’m going to be given something like this again in the future, I’ll have to check it carefully.”
In Vance’s view, Trump’s strategy is political.
As the case drags on into the next year, and if he becomes the Republican presidential candidate, Vance told CNN that he suspects Trump thinks the court will be cold about sentencing candidates.
Trump may be a judge, analysts say
Some legal analysts said the judge wanted to avoid a speech clampdown.
The order would draw a political backlash. Even the mild admonition on Tuesday angered Trump allies, like congressman Jim Jordan who mentioned Merchan’s words. cold and alarming.
“Judges obviously don’t want to go to that extreme,” Bennett Gershman, a former New York prosecutor and current law professor at Pace University in New York City, told CBC News.
“But Trump asked for it. … I said Trump crossed the line, but the reference to the judge’s daughter is particularly vicious and reprehensible.”
Another law professor said there are strategic reasons to avoid gag orders — not just First Amendment principles.
The first is that it will delay the case, said Daniel Medwed, a professor of criminal law and criminal procedure at Northeastern. University. Trump will fight the gag order, and push the case, which has been pending; the next hearing in December, in painting the presidential primary campaign.
Another reason prosecutors prefer to speak out is that Trump’s own words can be used as evidence, Medwed said. The more he speaks in public, the more likely he is to say something that will damage his case.
“It’s not clear the prosecution wants an order,” Medwed said.
He said he suspected Trump was still a few steps away from contempt charges. The first step is to say something that makes the judge reconsider his aversion to the joke order.
He said the former president was closer to his speech Tuesday night.
“It certainly puts him on shaky ground in terms of the judge’s warning,” Medwed said. “[A gag order] would be quite extraordinary in this case.
“Maybe Trump is the bait to do it.”
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