In the former president’s New York City criminal case accusing him of falsifying business records in connection with hush money from before the 2016 elections, Donald Trump is again under a threat of detention if he doesn’t show up for a newly scheduled hearing that’s happening next week on alleged violations of a gag order.
The order, from Judge Juan Merchan, protects witnesses, jurors, and others, and among the latest violations alleged of Trump is angry commentary from the ex-president-turned-defendant to the media this past Monday as court wrapped up. Trump was complaining at the time about ex-ally of his Michael Cohen, who is expected as a trial witness after his personal involvement in the hush money arrangements helping spur this case.
Trump has also recently commented on the jury. In an interview, he reportedly asserted: “That jury was picked so fast — 95 percent Democrats. The area is mostly all Democrats. You think of it as just a purely Democrat area.” One could definitely imagine such statements as pretty clearly violating the restrictions on the former president, which are designed to secure the integrity of the proceedings and shield participants from possibilities of threats or other targeting.
The jury, fundamentally, is just a group of everyday citizens selected from nearby communities and assembled only after a rigorous process of examination of possible participants, during which plenty of those who came up for consideration in court were excluded.
The threat to Trump of detention if he fails to show for that hearing appears, again, in text across the top of the page on the judge’s order scheduling proceedings. “WARNING: YOUR FAILURE TO APPEAR IN COURT MAY RESULT IN YOUR IMMEDIATE ARREST AND IMPRISONMENT FOR CONTEMPT OF COURT,” it says in entirely bold letters. The hearing is set for Thursday. There was already a first hearing on such allegations, though the judge has yet to rule on the dispute.
