During a segment this Thursday on “Morning Joe” from MSNBC, journalist Ken Dilanian discussed the potentially looming question of whether to detain former President Donald Trump in response to the antagonistic comments that he keeps making as he faces multiple criminal cases, including two from the feds.
In one recent post on Truth Social, Trump said: “If you go after me, I’m coming after you!” (The original message was in all caps.) A spokesperson associated with the former president claimed the comments applied merely to special interest groups and super PACs that had challenged Trump, an excuse many didn’t buy. Prosecutors began afterwards to seek a protective order that would restrict Trump’s comments, but some — including legal experts with whom Dilanian says he was in contact — have wondered about more stringent moves, like a gag order (which would be more restrictive) and actually detaining Trump.
“But a lot of experts I talked to, even ones very critical of Trump, think that these judges are going to have no choice but to let him do almost everything, except threaten like he did the other day with, you know, ‘If you come after me, I’m coming after you,'” Dilanian said. “That is what they think would cross the line, if he starts posting things that that can be conceived as threats to the judge or prosecutors.”
“They can fine him, but essentially, their ultimate leverage is they can throw him in jail,” Dilanian continued on the air. “Now, we’re into this situation where can a person with lifetime Secret Service protection be jailed? How are the Marshals going to react to that? How is the Secret Service going to react? We say this all the time, but we are really in dangerous, uncharted territory with these legal cases against the former president.”
Trump in the case related to his attempts to stay in power despite losing the last election has already clamored for the exit from the case of Judge Tanya Chutkan, alleging the judge is biased. Also under discussion has been the possibility of seeking the case’s transfer to the venue of West Virginia, where Trump soared in the 2020 election results. See Dilanian’s full comments below:
