Donald Trump again attacked the judge in the Stormy Daniels case, as well as his daughter, a day after Judge Juan Merchán issued a gag order prohibiting him from addressing comments to court staff or his family members.
Trump revived his demand that Judge Merchan, who also oversaw a Trump Organization tax fraud case, recuse himself from the matter, accusing him of suffering from “Trump derangement syndrome.”
Trump called the gag “un-American” and a violation of his First Amendment rights, and cited his daughter’s work as a political consultant for a digital company with a list of Democratic clients.
This came hours after Merchan issued his order prohibiting Trump from making statements about a “reasonably foreseeable witness,” as well as from making comments about the attorney, court staff, or “the family members of any attorney or staff member.”
Former President Donald Trump attacked the judge overseeing the Stormy Daniels case and also went after her daughter. Then Judge Juan Merchán imposed a silence order on him.
‘Judge Juan Merchan, who suffers from an acute case of Trump Derangement Syndrome (whose daughter represents corrupt Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Adam “Shifty” Schiff and other radical liberals, just posted a photo of me behind bars, his obvious goal, and makes it completely impossible for me to get a fair trial) has now issued another illegal, un-American and unconstitutional “order” while continuing to try to take away my rights,” Trump began.
He was referring to an online post by journalist and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who wrote that an X account belonging to Loren Merchan had an image of Trump behind bars as its profile photo.
The account he linked was created in 2013 and had only four posts, and could not immediately be confirmed to be his. The account’s posts are protected and it has 63 followers.
By late Wednesday morning, the image had changed from one of Trump to a child’s image of Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump also criticized Merchan.
‘This judge, by issuing a cruel “gag order,” is wrongly attempting to deprive me of my First Amendment right to speak out against the militarization of law enforcement, including corrupt Joe Biden, Merrick Garland and their thugs and hackers are tracking and following me all over the country, obsessively trying to hunt me down, while everyone knows I haven’t done anything wrong!’ he wrote.
Trump claimed that Merchan’s daughter posted an image of him behind bars, but the recent account had only 63 followers and her profile photo soon changed to a young Kamala Harris.
After Trump accused the judge’s daughter of posting an image of him behind bars, an account opened last year changed its profile photo to a young Kamala Harris.
Last year, Trump’s lawyers tried to force Merchan to recuse himself from the case, but a state ethics panel issued an opinion that he could remain, and Merchan himself determined that his recusal “would not be in the public interest,” after was revealed to have contributed. $15 for Joe Biden’s campaign.
Trump’s lawyers aforementioned Loren Merchan’s defense work at that time.
Merchan imposed a gag order on Trump on Tuesday after she used her social media platform to attack prosecutors in the Stormy Daniels case, as well as the judge and her daughter.
The gag prohibits the former president from making statements about witnesses, prosecutors or his relatives if he intends to interfere with the case.
It comes after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg requested the order on Feb. 22, invoking Trump’s “long history” of going after witnesses, prosecutors and judges.
Merchan is taking a page from New York Judge Arthur Engoron, who imposed a series of gag orders on Trump following attacks on himself, state Attorney General Letitia James and the judge’s chief clerk.
“The uncontested record reflecting the defendant’s prior extrajudicial statements establishes a sufficient risk to the administration of justice,” he wrote.
“His statements were threatening, inflammatory and denigrating,” wrote Merchan, who has a reputation for not allowing disturbances in his courtroom. His four-page order references attacks on “a family member.”
Trump has found ways to profit from jokes, as he has with his four criminal trials, criticizing efforts to gag him as a form of censorship.
The latest order prevents Trump from commenting on witnesses, lawyers and other court personnel, the judge or family members, although it allows him to continue attacking District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
In his order, Merchan notes that “the freedom of expression guaranteed by the First Amendment and the State’s interest in the fair administration of justice” are implicated in the relief prosecutors requested.
It applies to Trump both making and “directing others” to make public statements about “known or foreseeable witnesses” in the case, which would apply to Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, whom Trump has called a rat.
Restricts out-of-court statements about attorneys to the district attorney, court staff, the attorney’s family members, or staff with the ‘intent to materially interfere with’ work on the case. It also applies to statements about any potential juror or juror in the proceeding.
Everything came after Trump criticized the man who supervised Stormy Daniel trial a day after Judge Juan Merchán set an April trial date despite pressure from Trump’s lawyers to dismiss the case.
Trump was inside a Manhattan courtroom with Merchan on Monday as lawyers argued over the start of his first criminal trial, now scheduled for April 15. On Tuesday, he launched multiple online attacks on judges and prosecutors, even as he called Merchan a “distinguished-looking man.” .’
He took aim at Merchan’s daughter and lamented the treatment of former Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg, who pleaded guilty this month to lying under oath without agreeing to cooperate. It comes after his repeated attacks at her separate fraud trial in New York led Judge Arthur Engoron to impose a “gag” order prohibiting her from attacking his chief clerk.
“Judge Juan Merchán, a very distinguished-looking man, is nevertheless a true and certified Trump hater who suffers from a very serious case of Trump Derangement Syndrome,” Trump wrote.
‘In other words, he hates me! “His daughter is a top executive at a super-liberal Democratic firm who works for Adam “Shifty” Schiff, the Democratic National Committee, the Senate Majority PAC, and even corrupt Joe Biden,” Trump wrote.
Last year, Trump’s lawyers tried to remove Merchan from the case by citing her daughter’s work for Authentic Campaigns, a digital advocacy firm, but were denied.
Trump then went after Merchan for her role in overseeing the Weisselberg case. (He also oversaw former Trump campaign chairman Steve Bannon’s criminal fraud case.)
Merchan showed some of his tough side when Weisselberg was sentenced, telling him that if he hadn’t already promised a five-month sentence, he would have opted for something “much longer.”
Trump criticized Judge Juan Merchán and described him as “distinguished”
Trump began after a crucial hearing in his hush money case and his lawyers demanded it be delayed for months.
Trump, 77, complained about the case without directly saying he was referring to the veteran Trump executive first brought in by his father, Fred Trump, calling Weisselberg, 76, “elderly and in poor health.”
‘He was recently a judge in an unrelated trial of a long-term employee who was elderly and not in good health. This judge treated him brutally, telling him that either you cooperate or I will imprison you for 15 years. He pleaded guilty and went to jail for very minor, very unusual crimes, served 4 months in Rikers and now they are after him again, this time for allegedly lying (it doesn’t seem like a lie to me!), and they threatened him. He is sentenced again to 15 years if he does not say something bad about “TRUMP”. He is devastated and scared! These scoundrels and thugs who destroy the country have no case against me. WITCH HUNT!’
Trump was in Merchan’s courtroom as his team sought to dismiss or delay the trial on charges of falsifying business records related to the $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had an affair with Trump. They said they needed more time after prosecutors released more than 100,000 pages of evidence.
But Merchan rejected the statement after a tense hearing in which he argued with Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche.
Prosecutors “went so far from what they were required to do that it really is strange that we are here taking this time,” the judge said.
Merchan last year considered Trump’s motion to recuse himself from the case, addressing arguments about his daughter, including the claim that she “will benefit financially” from the court’s decisions.
‘Defendant has not demonstrated that there are concrete, or even realistic, reasons why recusal would be appropriate, much less required on these grounds. “The speculative and hypothetical scenarios offered by the defendant fall far below the legal standard,” Merchan wrote.