On Wednesday, Donald Trump’s attorneys asked Judge Juan Merchan for two favors in Trump’s ongoing New York criminal trial, where he is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to protect his 2016 campaign.
First, Trump’s legal team asked the judge to declare a mistrial. That was denied.
Trump’s team then asked Merchan to punch a hole in the gag order protecting members of the jury and witnesses from Trump’s malice so that he could “respond to the American people” about the testimony of adult film actor and director Stormy Daniels. The judge also denied that request.
“The nature, the vitriol … your client’s track record speaks for itself here,” said Merchan. “I can’t take your word for it that he says, ‘I’m just going to speak the facts.’”
But if Trump can’t attack Daniels himself, he can always call on surrogates to attack her in his place. And that’s exactly what he did.
Donald Trump has been fined for contempt of court in his first criminal trial nine times. Sorry, make that 10.
The first nine of those violations resulted from social media posts in which Trump couldn’t stop himself from attacking jurors and attempting to intimidate witnesses. No. 10 was a bonus appearance in which Trump criticized the jury on a far-right cable channel.
Not only did Stormy Daniels provide details of her sexual encounter with Trump during two days of testimony, but what she had to say was so damaging to Trump’s case that during his legal team’s first attempt at securing a mistrial that Trump’s lead attorney called Daniels' testimony "impossible to come back from"
With double-digit violations of the gag order already under Trump’s belt, Merchan was not about to give him any leeway. As the judge made clear, there were two big reasons for this: It would send a signal to every witness that they could be made subject to Trump’s abuse, and Trump simply can’t be trusted.
However, Politico reports that Trump is calling in a posse of social media surrogates to do exactly what the judge told him not to do. So far, that includes posts from Eric Trump claiming Daniels’ testimony is pointless; a press conference by Florida Sen. Rick Scott that included attacks on Daniels, members of the prosecution team, and Merchan’s daughter; and former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin parading across right-wing airwaves to talk about what a travesty this trial has become.
But the most interesting surrogate is North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (which may be the only time anyone has said that Burgum was the “most interesting” person in any situation). In addition to making the rounds on Thursday as one of “Trump’s attack dogs,” as described by Politico, Burgum has spent days demeaning the whole basis of the trial and echoing Trump’s false claims about President Joe Biden orchestrating the case to derail Trump’s campaign.
What makes the decidedly uninteresting Burgum interesting (at least in this case) is that he’s reportedly on Trump’s shortlist for vice president.
You’d better shape up, Tim Scott. Just promising Trump that you’ll help kill democracy might not be enough. Not even with a side order of sickening self-humiliation.
With Burgum already pitching in, don't be surprised if "who can craft the best social media attack" becomes the new test for Trump's would-be VPs.
Navigator collects, analyzes, and distributes real data on progressive messaging. The Hub Project's Bryan Bennett and Gabriela Parra talk with Kerry about what they are seeing in their research this election cycle, and which messaging can help progressive candidates win elections in 2024—and beyond.
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