On the heels of trial testimony from Stormy Daniels that Donald Trump denigrated her by calling her “horse-face” and “sleazebag,” the former president, already held in contempt, may be flirting with yet another violation of his gag order — and possible jail time — after he posted a thinly-veiled diatribe online invoking the same insults when reflecting on his recent experience in criminal court.
The post from the former president was made to Truth Social on Wednesday morning around 8:17 a.m. and in it, he said it was a “really bad feeling” to have his right to free speech “unfairly taken from him” but “especially when all of the sleazebags, lowlifes, and grifters that you oppose are allowed to say absolutely anything that they want.”
“It is hard to sit back and listen to lies and false statements be made against you knowing that if you respond, even in the most modest fashion, you are told by a Corrupt and Highly Conflicted judge that you be put IN PRISON, maybe for a long period of time,” Trump reflected.
He went on to rail against his prosecution as a “sophisticated hit job” from President Joe Biden and he also called out Judges Arthur Engoron and Lewis Kaplan, who oversaw his civil fraud and defamation cases, respectively, in New York.
Appearing on CNN, Just Security legal analyst and former Defense Department special counsel Ryan Goodman argued the thin line Trump is treading between permissible speech under his current gag and what he said online seems to have been breached.
If prosecutors wanted to highlight this message to the judge, they would have a “strong case,” he said.
“Its obvious from context who Donald Trump is talking about. If you know nothing, you know he’s probably talking about Stormy Daniels testimony and having to sit back and listen to it, ” Goodman said.
He continued:
But then if you know about some of the other social media posts that he has put out including one in which he identifies her as a “sleazebag” who was lying and making misrepresentations, that’s one of the prior Truth Social posts where he actually is quote-tweeting Michael Avenatti, her lawyer; it’s about her. And that’s one of the Truth Social posts that Justice Merchan has said violated the gag order.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Judge Merchan did hold Trump in contempt for that message and found these Truth Social posts of Trump’s have an overall negative impact on the witnesses or their testimony, and the integrity of the case.
“It is obviously denigrating to call someone a ‘sleazebag’ and say that they are lying and misrepresenting,” Goodman said Wednesday.
Watch this space.
Former President Trump has made a Truth Social post that appears to violate his gag order by going after Stormy Daniels.
Extraordinary since Justice Merchan recently warned the defendant that incarceration may be the next step.
I discussed @OutFrontCNN pic.twitter.com/rk96tKWs0E
— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) May 9, 2024
Trump can say what he wants about the judge or Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in the hush-money and election interference case, but going after witnesses is off-limits, per his gag order.
When Merchan held Trump in contempt on Monday, he warned him that after 10 contempt violations already, he could finally consider a jail sentence seriously.
“There are many reasons why incarceration truly is the last resort” Merchan told Trump, noting that by throwing Trump in jail it would ostensibly “obstruct the proceedings.”
“But at the end of the day, I have a job to do. Your continued willful violations constitute a direct attack on the rule of law. I cannot allow that to continue. As much as I’ve wanted to avoid a jail sentence, I will as necessary and if appropriate,” Merchan said on Monday.
During testimony Tuesday afternoon, Daniels recounted to the jury how Trump called her “horse-face” and “sleazebag,” just a few of the insults he used. Trump’s lawyers meanwhile worked to convince the jury that Daniels’ testimony was unreliable and that she made up lurid details of her encounter with him.
Daniels received $130,000 ahead of the election in 2016 to stay quiet about the affair.
Trump faces 34 felony charges in New York for falsifying business records.
He told reporters outside of the courthouse this week that if Merchan sent him to jail, he would be willing to go.
“This judge has given me a gag order and said you’ll go to jail if you violate it and frankly, you know what, our Constitution is much more important than jail. It’s not even close. I’ll do that sacrifice any day,” he said.
The post ‘Sleazebags, lowlifes and grifters’: Trump tempts fate with possible gag order violation in hush-money case first appeared on Law & Crime.
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Author: Brandi Buchman
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