Michael Cohen and former President Donald Trump.
REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz; Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Testimony in Donald Trump’s NY trial was delayed Thursday morning by still more gag-violation arguments.”Everybody can say anything they want except for President Trump!” his lawyer complainedTrump’s lawyers flagged Biden’s “stormy weather” and Michael Cohen’s Donald ‘Von ShitzInPants’ cracks.
Another week, another contempt-of-court hearing for Donald Trump — and this one was a doozy.
On Thursday morning, prosecutors at Trump’s Manhattan hush-money trial argued that he violated his gag order last week, during four on-camera statements in which he attacked witnesses and the jury.
Things got weird when defense attorney Todd Blanche complained that Trump must remain silent about witnesses and jurors while his opponents get to say whatever they like.
That’s when President Joe Biden and “Von ShitzInPants” made their bizarre cameo appearances on the official trial record.
Biden “mocked President Trump,” Blanche complained to the judge, quoting into the record a joke the president had made at the White House Correspondents’ dinner on Saturday.
“I’ve had a great stretch since the State of the Union. But Donald has had a few tough days lately. You might call it stormy weather,” Biden had quipped apparently in reference to Stormy Daniels, the porn star at the center of Trump’s hush-money trial.
Blanche lamented to the judge, state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, “President Trump can’t respond to that” by criticizing Daniels.
Likewise, Trump’s ex-personal attorney-turned-nemesis, Michael Cohen, can take whatever potshot he chooses, Blanche griped.
Trump must remain silent, Blanche complained, even when Cohen mocks him as Donald “Von ShitzInPantz,” a favorite insult of Cohen’s podcast and commentary on the social media site X.
Blanche read that colorfully worded, offending tweet into the record as Trump himself sat listening at the defense table.
“Hey Von ShitzInPantz,” Blanche recited as the court stenographer duly followed along.
“Your attacks of me stink of desperation,” he continued quoting the Tweet. “We are all hoping that you take the stand in your defense.”
“Everybody can say anything they want except for President Trump,” Blanche told the judge.
Blanche read a few more Cohen tweets into the record. Again, Trump was required to remain seated to his left, listening.
They included this direct taunt: “Keep messing with me Donald and I won’t send any money to your commissary!”
“Michael Cohen has gone on TikTok, nightly” and makes money from it, Blanche complained to the judge.
Last month, Cohen pledged to stop talking about Trump until after his testimony in the trial is over.
Merchan has already found Trump in contempt of court for gag violations. Last Thursday, he fined the GOP frontrunner $9,000 for nine online attacks on witnesses and jurors.
The judge did not immediately rule on the four additional Trump statements now before him.
Prosecutors are asking that Trump be fined another $4,000, the maximum allowed, for four on-camera statements Trump made last week.
Contempt of court is punishable under New York law by as much as 30 days in jail per violation. The DA’s office has not asked for jail.
However, prosecutors and the judge have warned that jail may be appropriate if there are future violations.
He’s done it again
“He’s already been found to have violated the order nine times and he’s done it again here,” prosecutor Christopher Conroy told the judge as the morning hearing began.
He was asking for $4,000 in new fines for Trump’s most recent batch of four allegedly gag-violating statements, all made in on-camera interviews last week.
In one of the challenged statements, Trump had complained, “that jury was picked so fast;” he also claimed the jury was “95% democrats.”
Trump made that statement last Thursday, Conroy noted, “hours before he had a hearing here relating to his previous allegations.”
In another challenged statement, from April 25, Trump praised the start of testimony by National Enquirer owner David Pecker.
“He’s been very nice,” Trump told reporters of Pecker.
“This is classic carrot and stick,” Conroy told the judge, about a witness who “was going to be testifying an hour later.” It was Trump warning, “I have a platform,” Conroy said. “So be nice.”
In his other challenged statements, Trump called Cohen “a convicted liar” and condemned his lack of credibility.
Trump’s gag violations have been “persistent and escalating,” the prosecutor told the judge.
“His statements are corrosive to this proceeding and to the fair administration of justice,” he added.
The judge showed skepticism toward Blanche’s argument that Trump “can’t say anything.”
“You’re saying he can’t respond to what President Biden said?” the judge asked Blanche at one point, his voice sounding incredulous.
“There’s nothing in the gag order that says he can’t,” the judge told Trump’s lawyer.
But the judge also appeared sympathetic to Blanche’s complaints that Cohen and Daniels have carte blanche to attack Trump — and continue to do so.
“They’re not defendants in this case,” Merchan said. “I can’t extend a gag order to them. I just don’t have the authority.”
