Donald Trump’s social media posts about likely witnesses were the first order of business Tuesday when court resumed for the historic criminal trial of a former president, with a prosecutor suggesting Trump has been violating his gag order to get locked up for political purposes and the judge telling the defense they were losing credibility with their arguments.
“We are not yet seeking an incarceratory penalty. The defendant seems to be angling for that,” prosecutor Chris Conroy told Judge Juan Merchan at a hearing over whether Trump should be held in contempt over a series of posts on Truth Social that prosecutors argue violated Merchan’s gag order. The ruling prohibits Trump from publicly attacking witnesses and jurors, something prosecutors say he’s done at least 10 times since the order went into effect.
“The purpose of this hearing is to find out whether the defendant Mr. Trump should be held in contempt for one or all of these violations,” the judge said as the hearing began.
“His disobedience of the order is willful, it’s intentional,” Conroy told the judge of Trump. “He knows what he’s not allowed to do and he does it anyway.”
Trump attorney Todd Blanche argued “there was absolutely no willful violation” of the April 1 order, and said his client was merely responding to a “barrage of political attacks.” Merchan pressed Blanche on what specific attacks Trump was responding to when he made the posts, a question the attorney struggled to answer.
“I keep asking you over and over to give me an example and I’m not getting an answer,” the judge said, appearing frustrated.
The DA’s office is seeking the maximum $1,000 fine for each of the 10 posts it says violated the order, along with an order that Trump remove the posts from his social media platform. It also wants Merchan to warn Trump any future violations risk not just additional fines but also as long as 30 days in jail.
Merchan reserved a decision on the prosecution’s motion, meaning he’ll rule on the issue at a later time. He made clear, however, that he was not impressed by the arguments from Trump’s legal team. When Blanche told him Trump was being careful about complying with the order, the judge told him, “You’re losing all credibility with the court.”
After the hearing, the jury will be brought back into the courtroom for further testimony from David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, who was the first witness the DA’s office called Monday. During his opening statement, prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said Pecker conspired with his longtime friend Trump and Michael Cohen , who was then Trump’s lawyer, in a scheme to suppress scandalous stories about Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign.
“They agreed that Pecker would help the defendant’s campaign by acting as eyes and ears for the campaign,” Colangelo said.
It was Pecker who alerted Cohen to the news that adult film star Stormy Daniels was about to come forward with a claim that she had had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, when he was married, Colangelo said. Trump has denied her claim.
Pecker’s testimony Monday was brief — he was on the stand for just about 20 minutes before court ended for the day. He’s expected to get into the details of his relationship with Trump and the alleged conspiracy when he returns to the stand at about 11 a.m. ET Tuesday.
Cohen ultimately paid Daniels $130,000 to get her to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Prosecutors allege that Trump falsely claimed his reimbursement to Cohen as legal payments. He’s charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records, a low-level felony, and faces up to four years in prison if he’s convicted. He has pleaded not guilty.
The contempt hearing scheduled for Tuesday morning will focus on prosecutors’ allegation in two court filings that Trump “willfully violated” the gag order with repeated posts on Truth Social. The cited posts include one that referred to Cohen and Daniels as “sleaze bags” and others that linked to a New York Post story calling Cohen a “serial perjurer.”
The partial gag order Merchan slapped on Trump this month bars him from making “public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses concerning their potential participation in the investigation or in this criminal proceeding.”
Trump’s attorneys have argued that the posts didn’t violate the order because he was largely sharing posts from other people and news outlets, and the posts are political speech. Asked by the judge what case law he had to support that position, Blanche said he didn’t have any, but “it’s just common sense.”
Blanche defended one of the posts about Daniels, saying it concerned her credibility, not her anticipated testimony.
“Her credibility doesn’t matter a whole lot if she doesn’t take the stand in this trial,” Merchan said.
Trump did not seem concerned during Blanche’s exchange with the judge — he sat with his eyes closed for a portion of it.
Conroy told the judge that Trump’s use of his acronym for his campaign slogan “Make America Great Again” in some of the posts doesn’t change the nature of their message.
“Throwing a ‘MAGA’ into a post doesn’t make it political. It may make it more ominous,” he said.
Trump’s lawyers have also contended that the order allows Trump to defend himself from attacks, so he was within his rights to speak out because Cohen and Daniels have criticized him publicly. Merchan said last week that he doesn’t believe his order makes such an exception.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office also cited comments Trump made to reporters Monday, when he repeatedly called Cohen a liar. Conroy said he’d be filing another motion on those comments later Tuesday.
