Andrew Weissmann, a former federal prosecutor whose time in government service included a stint on the Russia investigation led by Robert Mueller, was among those speaking out this weekend amid the latest concerns about Donald Trump’s rhetoric.
Trump is incessantly targeting a daughter to the judge in his New York City criminal case that’s nearing trial, identifying her by name and including apparent photos of her in angry rants online.
Weissmann was specifically among those subsequently demanding that Trump be held to standards similar to what would face everyday Americans subject to the justice system.
“1. tighten the bail release conditions ASAP,” the former prosecutor wrote on X. “2. Warn that jail will result from threatening ANYONE while out on bail, or posting about witnesses, jurors, court or prosecution families[.] 3. Enforce- that is what it means to treat likes alike. The foundation of the rule of law.”
Circumstances of Trump’s wide-ranging court hurdles also spurred accusations of special treatment after an appeals court in New York lessened the amount that Trump was required to produce via a bond to hold off collections during appeals of a judgment against him from a state case that successfully alleged a years-long pattern of business fraud. Originally, the required bond would have covered the entirety of the financial penalties, which neared half a billion dollars when including interest and left Trump openly pondering the possibility of selling off assets to cover the financial burden. That appeals court made the amount $175 million instead, giving Trump 10 days.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, are arguing that a gag order imposed in the criminal case in New York already effectively blocks comments of the sort Trump is making about the judge’s daughter, though the judge’s family is not explicitly named in lists of individuals protected from a range of attacks. Trump’s team predictably claimed otherwise in reaction to a request from the prosecution for the judge to “clarify or confirm” the order’s presumed protections for the judge’s family.
