Former President Donald Trump shredded Justice Juan Merchan, who gagged Trump in his business records trial, while leaving court on Friday, declaring that he would “be very proud to go to jail for our Constitution” as the judge has threatened for future violations.
Trump spoke for more than ten minutes after court on Friday and blasted the gag order. The order bars him from speaking about witnesses, counsel other Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, “members of the court’s staff and the District Attorney’s staff, or … the family members of any counsel or staff member,” as Breitbart News noted in March.
“What the judge did was amazing, actually, was amazing,” Trump told reporters at the top of his statement. “Everybody can say whatever they want. They can say whatever they want, but I’m not allowed to say anything about anybody. It’s a disgrace, and you see it; the media sees it.”
In this courtroom sketch, Judge Juan M. Merchan presides over former U.S. President Donald Trump’s trial in a Manhattan criminal court in New York, Monday, April 15, 2024. (Jane Rosenberg/Pool via AP)
Trump’s comments came after his defense argued during a motion for a mistrial on Tuesday, which Merchan denied, that Porn Star Stormy Daniels’ testimony deviated from the government’s “guardrails” set for the scope of her testimony. Meanwhile, as Daniels is a witness, Trump is prohibited from talking about her.
Stormy Daniels leaves Manhattan Criminal Court after testifying at former President Donald Trump’s business records trial in New York City, on May 9, 2024. X-rated film actress Daniels returned to the witness stand on Thursday for another round of grilling by attorneys for the former president. (CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty)
He displayed to reporters images of a number of opinion articles from legal minds like Jonathan Turley and Alan Dershowitz and columnists like the Wall Street Journal’s Kimberly Strassel, who authored a piece entitled “Trump and the Lawfare Implosion of 2024” on Thursday.
“The articles are unbelievable, and I’d hand you the articles, but the problem is I’m not allowed to because if anything is mentioned against certain people, and you know who they are, certain people, anything’s even mentioned, he wants to put me in jail,” Trump said of Merchan.
“And that could happen one day, and I’d be very proud to go to jail for our Constitution, because what he’s doing is so unconstitutional,” he added.
The 45th president appeared to have a dozen or so different articles in his hands before calling it a “dark day for New York City, New York State — and it’s a very dark day for our nation.”
On Monday, Merchan found Trump in contempt for a tenth time. He said he would consider jail time for the former president if he continued to violate the order — and also admitted he could be the next president, as Breitbart News noted.
Trump on Friday also contended that the case “shouldn’t have been brought, but if it was going to be brought, it should have been brought seven years ago.”
“Remember, everybody turned it down. Southern District turned it down, Washington turned it down, the Federal Election Commission turned it down,” he added.