According to social media accounts, New York Judge Juan Merchan told ex-President Donald Trump on Monday he was under threat of an arrest if he failed to show up for the now active criminal trial of the ex-president in New York City. In other words, Trump’s incessant, public complaints aren’t getting him out of this.
“Trump has to be in the courtroom every day for the duration of his criminal trial,” MSNBC’s Jesse Rodriguez recapped on X, the social platform formerly called Twitter, adding the following quote from Merchan, who was evidently addressing Trump: “If you do not show up there will be an arrest.”
Local legal journalist Matthew Russell Lee had a slightly different version of Merchan’s remarks, communicating the same general idea. “Mr. Trump, you may remember that I previously gave you Parker warnings: You have the right to be present in the trial. If you disrupt the proceeding, you may be excluded and jailed. If you fail to appear, a warrant will be issued for your arrest,” Merchan reportedly told the ex-president.
Trump has a recent history of allegedly disrupting trial proceedings, a dispute that became temporarily a serious problem in the second civil trial stemming from claims against him by writer E. Jean Carroll. Trump was not obligated to attend those proceedings, which culminated with a jury imposing over $83 million in additional penalties on the ex-president, which he’s since covered — for now — with a bond amid continuing disputes. Amid challenges to Trump’s conduct in the courtroom during trial from Carroll’s team, presiding Judge Lewis Kaplan threatened Trump with expulsion from the proceedings in that federal case, which brought Trump’s overall penalties from Carroll’s claims near $90 million.
