A series of sources quickly corrected some of Donald Trump’s claims this Tuesday amid his ongoing criminal trial in New York City on allegations of falsifying business records.
“For blocks, you can’t get near this courthouse,” Trump claimed to the media on Tuesday, trying to connect the lack of particularly significant protests on his behalf to some kind of hurdle to demonstrators actually showing up.
“This is obviously a lie. We were there yesterday. There is a space to protest right across the street and we counted five Trump supporters total. Six if you count Andrew Giuliani wandering aimlessly looking for someone to interview him,” the political comedy/commentary duo The Good Liars wrote Tuesday on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Trump just claimed that the police have shut down the streets around the courthouse for blocks & that his protesters can’t be here. Just…not true. There is one pro-Trump person here & the main street along the courthouse is open to traffic,” NBC reporter Vaughn Hillyard shared on the same platform, with video footage of the scene outside included in the post.
Trump was facing a court hearing early Tuesday on alleged violations of his gag order previously imposed in this case by presiding Judge Juan Merchan, which Trump has seemed, to some, to flout incessantly, whether with comments about expected witnesses, the assembling of the jury (which was finalized Friday), or anything on a similar wavelength. Possible penalties for findings of contempt in this context include financial consequences and detention up to 30 days, although prosecutors were starting out with ambitions of just the fines, keeping detention a future possibility. Former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann previously argued that, logistically, it’s perfectly feasible for Trump to be detained.
