Judge Juan Merchan on Tuesday came down hard on Trump lawyer Todd Blanche's attempts to spin former President Donald Trump's apparent violations of a previously issued gag order that prevented him from publicly attacking witnesses in his hush-money trial.
As reported by Inner City Press' Matthew Russell Lee, Merchan appeared to lose his patience when Blanche tried to argue that Trump simply promoting an article that attacked witness Michael Cohen didn't run afoul of the gag order because Trump was simply passing along something said by someone else.
"How does his account work?" Merchan asked Blanche of the former president's Truth Social account.
"There's a group of folks that look for articles they think President Trump's audience should know about," Blanche replied.
"It's not passive," Merchan noted. "Someone had to do something."
Merchan then expressed incredulity at what Blanche appeared to be arguing.
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"Is your client saying he thought reposting couldn't violate the gag order?" he asked him. "You've presented nothing."
Blanche then seemed to challenge Merchan to call Trump to testify himself about his own motivations and reasonings for his social media posts.
"Do you want me to put President Trump on the stand?" Blanche asked. "Is that was you're asking for?"
A short time after this, as reported by legal journalist Adam Klasfeld, Blanche insisted to Merchan that "President Trump is being very careful to comply" with the gag order, to which Merchan replied, "Mr. Blanche, you are losing all credibility."
Trump has been ranting for weeks about the gag order placed on him, as he says that restricting his ability to attack witnesses and jurors during a criminal trial violates his First Amendment rights, despite the fact that such orders are placed on criminal defendants as a matter of routine.
