Donald Trump’s trial over falsifying documents to cover up his relationship with adult film actress Stormy Daniels in advance of the 2016 election continued Thursday. But before the trial resumed, Judge Juan Merchan convened a second hearing on possible violations of a gag order designed to protect witnesses and jurors.
Trump was held in contempt of court on Tuesday and fined $9,000 for repeatedly violating that order. Thursday’s hearing focused on four additional social media posts that prosecutors believe are also in violation of the order.
Merchan made no immediate ruling following the hearing, but at the end of the day, Trump made a kind of ruling of his own, telling reporters outside the courtroom that he wasn’t allowed to testify because of the gag order. Trump repeated this claim several times in response to questions, with attorney Todd Blanche nodding along at his side.
On Friday morning, Merchan made it clear that this lie wasn’t going to be ignored.
The idea that Trump isn’t allowed to testify is a ridiculous reading of Merchan’s order.
After claiming that Merchan had taken away his right to testify, NBC News reports that Trump was back at it again on his way into court on Friday.
“This judge has taken away my constitutional right,” Trump told reporters. “We’re filing, I think today, a constitutional motion.”
Whatever that is.
But as soon as the court was gaveled into session, Merchan made it clear that Trump’s false claims were not going to be ignored.
"It does not prohibit you from taking the stand. As the name of the order indicates, it only applies to extrajudicial statements,” he said.
According to NBC, Trump mouthed the words “thank you,” which could imply that he intends to present this as some sort of victory for his position, rather than confirmation that everything he’d been saying outside the court was a lie.
All of this seems as if Trump is trying to cobble together an excuse not to take the stand after previously claiming he would. Testimony on Thursday, which included a bombshell audio recording of Trump and former attorney Michael Cohen discussing how to silence Daniels, could have contributed to Trump’s cold feet.
Blanche’s nodding along during Trump’s false claims on Thursday, when the lead attorney surely knew that the gag order didn’t apply to testimony, certainly makes this seem more like a defense strategy than a misunderstanding.
The lie about not being allowed to testify followed an equally ridiculous event in which Trump carried a stack of printed articles and social media posts into court, had one of his attorneys show them to the judge, and tried to make Merchan tell him which ones he was allowed to use in his Truth Social rants.
Merchan quickly shot down this ploy saying.
“I’m not going to give advanced release … I’m not going to be in a position to read posts.”
He reminded Trump’s legal team that an appeals court had reviewed the text of the gag order and found it to be “unambiguous.”
In other words, if Trump wanted someone to vet his posts, they could do it themselves.
Campaign Action