Judge Juan Merchan
New York Judge Juan Merchan threatened President Trump with a gag order during Tuesday’s arraignment.
The judge did not impose a gag order, however he warned Trump not to incite violence.
The judge warned former President Trump not to make any statements that would incite violence against any officials, per @KaraScannell
— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) April 4, 2023
Mediaite reported:
During former President Donald Trump’s arraignment on Tuesday, in which he was charged with 34 felony counts related to falsifying business records for hush money payments, Judge Juan Merchan said he would not issue a gag order at this time, but warned Trump not to incite violence.
Fox News’s Bryan Llenas interviewed Fox legal producer Jake Gibson, who was in the courtroom during the arraignment, about some of the details regarding the proceedings.
“Mr. Trump walked in. President former President Trump walked in. He seemed to have a bit of a swagger. He certainly looked stoic. He looked stone-faced,” Gibson began, adding:
He pleaded not guilty, said not guilty. And at some point, the prosecution brought up all of the social media posts that he has put out recently, including the one where he’s holding a bat next to D.A. [Alvin] Bragg.
And the prosecution said this is, you know, could be looked at as inciting violence. And they wanted Judge Merchan to, it seemed like they wanted him to give a gag order.
Judge Merchan said that, ‘no, he wouldn’t give a gag order.’ But he said to Mr. Trump and to his attorneys, ‘I don’t want to see this anymore.’ I don’t want to see, the next time that I see something like this, I might have a different idea about what I should do.
His attorney said that, look, this case has been, they’ve been investigating this for three years. There’s been selective leaks that are harming former President Trump. And it’s unthinkable that he wouldn’t be allowed to defend himself. That is their way of justifying his posts. The judge said that he didn’t that he wasn’t sure that that justified, you know, if he was inciting violence.
Trump was placed under arrest ahead of his arraignment after a Manhattan grand jury indicted him on junk charges related to ‘hush payments’ to porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy centerfold Karen McDougal.
Trump was charged with 34 criminal counts of falsifying business records and conspiracy.
Trump was hit with a criminal charge for every payment he made to his former lawyer Michael Cohen in connection with the ‘hush payments’ to the two women.
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg went through the Trump Organization’s ledger and charged him down the line per payment to Cohen.
The indictment said the payments to the two women were to silence them about the affairs ‘in order to avoid those accounts harming his chances of winning the election over Hillary Clinton.’
The prosecutors said Trump’s so-called ‘crimes’ undermined the 2016 election.
