Former President Donald Trump sidestepped New York Judge Juan Merchan’s gag order by reading news reports critical of the “hush money” case being brought against him.
Before entering the Manhattan court house Tuesday morning, Trump pulled out a piece of paper and read assessments of the trial from mostly left-leaning news outlets.
He first cited CNN legal analyst Michael Moore, who said, “The proof of falsifying records has not been accomplished.”
CNN: Proof of Falsifying Records “Has Not Been Accomplished Yet”
THIS IS ELECTION INTERFERENCE. pic.twitter.com/aCGEVeXEGo
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) May 7, 2024
Trump continued, saying, “On ‘Good Morning America,’ they said, ‘We heard that expense payments to lawyers are legal expenses.’”
“You pay a lawyer expenses payments,” the former president then explained. “We didn’t put it down as construction costs, the purchase of sheet rock, the electrical cost.”
“The legal expense that we paid was put down as legal expense. There’s nothing else you could say. You don’t have to put down anything, I guess. But we put down legal expense,” Trump continued.
“That’s the fraud. That’s what they’re trying to get us on. The fact that we called a legal expense, a legal expense,” he emphasized.
Was this a clever move?
Bragg has charged Trump with falsifying business records by listing a $130,000 non-disclosure agreement with porn star Stormy Daniels as legal expense payments made to his former personal attorney Michael Cohen.
Nondisclosure agreements are very common and generally legal.
Daniels testified Tuesday that she and Trump had a sexual encounter in 2006, which he has denied, the Associated Press reported.
THE COUNTRY IS ON FIRE: There are protests all over the country. I’ve never seen anything like this. Many graduation ceremonies are being canceled.
And we have a president that just refuses to talk because he can’t talk, you know that and so does everyone else. pic.twitter.com/AI2HOpK1tC
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) May 7, 2024
On Tuesday, Trump also cited a report on NBC’s “Today” show.
“‘The challenge is that there is no smoking gun, no email or tape to prove the president’s intent. They don’t have a way to prove that.’ That’s NBC ‘Today’ show,” the Republican said.
Trump then argued, “They have no case. Every single legal scholar that I see, I mean, maybe there’s somebody out there, some whack job. But for virtually … everyone that I’ve seen has said there’s absolutely no case.”
“It’s a case that shouldn’t have been brought. The previous D.A. wouldn’t bring it. Bragg didn’t want to bring it. And then he brought it because I’m running and in number one place,” he said.
In March, Merchan issued a gag order, which bars Trump from making public statements about any witnesses who are reasonably foreseeable of testifying at the trial, or discussing members of District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s staff or the court’s staff or their family members, or making statements about the jurors.
Trump is allowed to criticize Bragg and Merchan himself. Last month, the judge expanded the order to include his own family.
Trump has argued on numerous occasions that the judge is conflicted and called for his recusal because Merchan’s daughter, Loren Merchan, is president of Authentic Campaigns, whose past clients include Joe Biden’s campaign.
The New York Post reported in March that Loren Merchan’s firm has used the Trump’s trial before her father’s court in email solicitations to help raise millions in campaign donations for Democratic candidates.
On Monday, Merchan ruled Trump was in contempt of the gag order for the tenth time for mentioning the jury is made up of Democrats. He fined Trump $1,000 and threatened him with jail time if he continues to violate the order.
