Amid a cascade of public attacks from former President Donald Trump on the judge in a New York criminal case and that judge’s daughter, Joe Scarborough of the MSNBC program “Morning Joe” is asserting that other Americans would be staring down a stint in detention for what Trump is doing.
“If he ends up going to jail for a couple of nights for violating this [gag] order, it’s on Donald Trump. It’s on him,” Scarborough said on air. “The rest of us — 340 million Americans would not get away with what Donald Trump’s getting away with. Mark that down. 340 million of us would not get away with trashing the judge and lying about the judge’s daughter. I practiced law for a few years, and I practiced law long enough to know that if you did something like this in northwest Florida, you would be sent to jail for a night or two to think about it.”
Trump has referenced purported posts to social media from the judge’s daughter that do not actually trace to her, and he’s even named online that member of the judge’s family, despite her lack of actual involvement in the case.
Trump was recently put under a gag order amid the proceedings, which involve criminal allegations of Trump falsifying business records in connection to hush money from before the 2016 elections, with trial set for mere weeks in the future. The order, though, does not cover the judge himself or members of his family, though Trump is limited from a range of public commentary on witnesses, jurors (both prospective and actual), and others.
Trump was also put under gag orders in two other cases, including his massive civil case from state authorities in New York that successfully alleged a years-long pattern of fraud. And in that case, Trump also publicly singled out at one point the wife of the judge, though that judge didn’t end up expanding the restrictions on the former president.
“So much of [Trump’s] problems are self-inflicted. If he ends up in jail for a couple of nights for violating this [gag] order, it’s on him. 340 million Americans would not get away with what Trump’s getting away with.”
— @JoeNBC on Trump’s attacks on judge in hush money case pic.twitter.com/3jsUR0na6G
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) March 28, 2024
