On Tuesday, Juan Merchan — the judge in Donald Trump’s New York City criminal case — held the former White House occupant in contempt and imposed financial penalties for violations on his part of a gag order previously imposed by the judge. Also on Tuesday, Trump again began ranting on social media… targeting, it seems, witness testimony.
Witnesses are among those protected by the judge’s restrictions on Trump’s public commentary, and the judge already threatened to potentially send the ex-president to jail for additional gag order violations.
“This is a total Witch Hunt. Hours of sitting down and listening to nothing except EXONERATION AND LIES. The Trial is going like a speeding bullet, because the Judge is working hard to make all of his friends happy. Merchan is Rigged, Crooked and above all, and without question, CONFLICTED. It’s a disgrace to our Country — They’ve taken away my Right to Free Speech. ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!!” Trump told his followers.
When Trump talks about what he’s “listening to”… well, the current stage of trial features extensive witness testimony. So, while Trump didn’t include witness names in this post to Truth Social, an invocation of witnesses appearing on the stand still seems obvious.
There is already a hearing that’s coming up later this week on even more alleged violations by Trump of the gag order. An earlier hearing — besides the eventual outcome not in Trump’s favor — already didn’t go well for the former president’s defense team, with Merchan deriding at one point a contention from a Trump lawyer that the ex-president/his team were actually working diligently to comply with the directives. Merchan called out in his eventual decision that he was restricted to $1,000 at a time for the contempt findings, meaning that Trump’s financial penalties were capped at $9,000 for nine violations.
