Former President Donald Trump was back in the courtroom for his Manhattan "hush money" trial on Tuesday morning, but before witness testimony could resume Judge Juan Merchan held a hearing to consider holding Trump in contempt of court for alleged gag order violations.
According to prosecutors, Trump has violated the gag order ten times and is "angling" for incarceration as punishment for violating the judge's order restricting Trump's statements and posts on Truth Social. In the trial currently playing out, Trump has been barred from public comments about witnesses, jurors, court employees, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's staff, and the families of Merchan and Bragg.
Prosecutors said that Trump "hasn't stopped" violating the gag order and pointed to Trump's statements about Michael Cohen, posts quoting news reports about the fraught jury selection process, "He’s doing everything he can to undermine this process," complained Assistant District Attorney Christopher Conroy. "It has to stop."
Trump defense attorney Todd Blanche argued that the former president "does, in fact, know what the gag order does allow him to do and not allow him to do, and there was absolutely no willful violation of the gag order in the ten posts" cited by the prosecution as supposed proof.
Saying there is "no dispute that President Trump is facing a barrage of political attacks from all sides," Blanche made the case that Trump's posts are responses to attacks allowed against him amid his campaign to return to the White House.
"We’re saying, A) President Trump is allowed to respond to political attacks; and B) if he’s talking about witnesses it doesn’t have anything to do with these proceedings," Blanche said before things grew contentious between the judge and Trump's attorney.
When the judge asked for case law supporting the defense's argument, Blanche admitted "we don't have any...but it's just common sense."
"You’ve presented nothing," Merchan criticized. "I’ve asked you eight or nine times [to] show me the exact post he is responding to — you’ve been unable to do that even once."
"You are losing all credibility," the judge warned Trump's lawyer. "You’re losing all credibility with the court."
After the courtroom dust-up that saw Merchan raise his voice at Trump's defense team, the judge delayed his ruling on whether Trump had violated the gag order and would be held in contempt of court. The trial resumed witness testimony with former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker in the meantime Tuesday morning.
During a break between the gag order hearing and the resumption of the trial, Trump posted twice to Truth Social.
"Every single Legal Scholar and Expert said that Soros backed prosecutor, Alvin Bragg, has 'no case,'" Trump said in his first message from the courthouse. "This list includes Jonathan Turley, Gregg Jarrett, Byron York, Andrew McCarthy, Mark Levin, Alan Dershowitz, Mike Davis, David Rivkin, Kristin Shapiro, Brad Smith, Andrew Cherkasky, and many more. SO WHY WON’T THEY DROP THIS CASE?" the former president queried. "Alvin Bragg never wanted to bring it - thought it was a joke. Was furious at lawyer MARK POMERANTZ (will he be prosecuted?) for what he did!"
The second post reiterated Trump's continued frustration with not just the trial but the way it's being carried out: