We won’t start w/a witness today as expected; instead there will be a hearing to decide whether #Trump violated the #GagOrder placed on him.

Prosecutors are arguing he has violated it 10 times.

The gag order imposed on #Trump bars him from him attacking any of the #witnesses, #prosecutors, #jurors or #court staff involved in the case.

After Trump relentlessly went after Merchan’s daughter, it was expanded to cover some of their relatives as well.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial

The #jury won’t be present for the arguments over the #GagOrder, so it will be interesting to watch how #Trump behaves w/ them out of the courtroom. Yesterday, in their presence, he largely sat silent and occasionally shook his head when he disagreed with the prosecutors. But this morning, when the jury is not here and he is confronted with his own words, I expect he will get more animated.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

Prosecutors asked early last wk for #Trump to be held in #contempt. At that time, Judge #Merchan scheduled the hearing for today.
Merchan has only admonished TFG once so far—for muttering & gesturing in front of a prospective juror about her social media posts & responses during voir dire.

Worth noting: Trump went on #RightWing radio last night & bashed #jurors again in violation of the #GagOrder.
🤞🏻Merchan holds him in #criminal contempt today, enough #StochasticTerrorism TYVM.
#law #TrumpTrial

Judge #Merchan entered & almost immediately left w/ the lawyers in tow for in-chambers session.

Unclear as to why.

Trump’s radio call-in perhaps?

Sidebars, where the defense & prosecution meet quietly w/a judge at the bench, are a common occurrence in #criminal trials.

But a meeting in the judge's chamber, signals a need for additional privacy.

So #Trump is left alone at the defense table 🎻, w/ all the reporters — or as he calls them “enemies of the state” 🙄.

#law #TrumpTrial #GagOrder

The prosecutors have returned. #Trump’s lawyers as well.

Judge #Merchan is back on the bench & says that 2 matters are now in the record:

The two separate attempts that prosecutors have made to see Trump held in #contempt of court. (#GagOrder violated 10 times)

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

Meanwhile…

#Security removed a member of the public from the overflow room. The man was verbally sparring w/officers for some time, first complaining he wasn't allowed access to the main court room. (access is first-come first-served). Then he tried insisting on being allowed to stand at the back of the courtroom.
"This is not fair," he kept saying. He was ultimately asked to leave.

#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

Prosecutor, Chris Conroy, details DA’s #GagOrder argument.
He says 10 #Trump posts violated the order.
8 were on TruthSocial.
2 were on his ofcl campaign website.

#Conroy argues these violations pose a very real#threat to proceedings, & have an "undertow" effect on #witnesses, making them afraid. He says witnesses, "rightly fear being subject to similar vitriol."

Conroy says Trump's attacks on #MichaelCohen in courtroom hallway yesterday again violated the order.

So 11 violations

#TrumpTrial

#Conroy notes that a 2nd order was needed after #Trump "ratcheted up attacks on family members."

Conroy goes through Trump's alleged #GagOrder violations, including one in which he thanked #StormyDaniels's disgraced lawyer, Michael #Avenatti, for criticizing #MichaelCohen. Conroy also describes how Trump called #Cohen & Daniels "sleazebags."

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #GagOrder #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

#Conroy is now describing 5 more examples, all versions of essentially the same post, in which Trump shared a NewYorkPost article about #MichaelCohen & quoted its headline: "A serial perjurer will try to prove an old misdemeanor against #Trump in an embarrassment for the NewYork legal system."

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #GagOrder #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

#Conroy says that #Trump “violates the order when he posts about known #witnesses or reasonably forseeable witnesses,” & “violates the order when he posts about a #juror or prospective juror.”

+ Throwing a "#MAGA" into a post doesn't make it #political, Conroy says, dismissing the idea that Trump's comments fall under the category of protected political speech. It may, in fact, make it more ominous, Conroy adds.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #GagOrder #ElectionInterference

#Conroy is talking about #Trump seeking to use #politics as a defense, saying it "makes no sense," eviscerating the clear language & meaning of the #GagOrder. "There's no indication that his claim that he's responding to attacks is anything more than an after-the-fact justification," Conroy says.

"He knows about the order, he knows what he's not allowed to do, & he does it anyway," Conroy says, adding: "It's #willful."

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #ElectionInterference #StochasticTerrorism

#Conroy says prosecutors will not seek #jail for now, even though #Trump seems to be “angling" for that
[#martyr complex, #megalomaniac]

New York state's #criminal #contempt #law permits a $1k fine & jail time of up to 30 days for each violation of the #GagOrder.

And Conroy is asking the judge to warn Trump that he could face custody.

[he’s been warned! Repeatedly!]

#TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

Todd Blanche, one of Trump's lawyers, is responding for the #defense. He says #Trump knows what the #GagOrder allows him & there was "no #willful violation" of it.

He again argues, as he did in his opening statement, that there's nothing to see here.

#Blanche is arguing that nothing can be seen devoid of #political context when it comes to Trump.
[reminiscent of seal team 6 can assassinate political rivals argument]

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference

#Blanche is trying to get #Trump out of hot water by reframing Trump's statements about #MichaelCohen & #StormyDaniels as responses to "a barrage of political attacks."

#Merchan says he doesn't want to get into "interpreting & reading between the lines" of Trump's posts as Blanche continues to push the point that Trump's attacks are #political, & not specifically related to the case, despite being about #witnesses.

Blanche is continually interrupted by the judge.

#TrumpTrial #law #GagOrder

#Blanche says that a post from Michael #Avenatti, which caused #Trump to launch into an attack on StormyDaniels & MichaelCohen, was a political argument, about speech not in the case but on social media & in interviews.

I guess, Blanche is saying, Trump's response is not an attack on #witnesses but a continuation of a political *discussion*.

The #legal & #political strategies by the Trump #law team have always been intertwined.

With Trump, everything is politics.

#TrumpTrial #GagOrder

Justice #Merchan is basically taking on, one by one, #Trump's strategies via social media.

One is constantly claiming something was "just found." Here, the subj was #StormyDaniels' 2018 statement denying having had a sexual encounter w/Trump, which she has since disavowed. "LOOK WHAT WAS JUST FOUND!" Trump said in an April 10 Truth Social post.

“I need to know what is true," Justice Merchan says.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #GagOrder #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

The judge loses patience w/ #Blanche, "I'm asking the questions, OK," he says. "Im going to decide whether your client is in #contempt or not, so please don't turn it around." Blanche says in a higher-pitched voice that the prosecutors got as much time as they want.

Justice #Merchan makes a distinction, saying the prosecutors were answering his questions.

During the scold, #Trump turned to another one of his lawyers, Emil Bove, & whispered a comment.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #GagOrder

Sorry folks, I had to take a break to feed #BabySquirrel Ramone.

Here’s a catch-up:

#Blanche said #Trump is entitled to complain about "2 systems of justice."

"There's 2 systems of justice in this courtroom? That's what you're saying?" Justice #Merchan said.

Justice Merchan is pushed Blanche to do a forensic accounting of how reposts happen in Trump's world. "It's not passive," the judge finally said.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #GagOrder #CatchAndKill #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

Interesting throughline between #Blanche's argument that there’s distance between #Trump & his own reposts & the prosecution's argument against Trump, which is that he repeatedly used others - #MichaelCohen, The #NationalEnquirer - to do his dirty work.

This line of questioning highlighted a longtime Twitter catchphrase - that “retweets do not equal endorsements."

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #GagOrder #CatchAndKill #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

#Merchan repeatedly pushed #Blanche to clarify, only to have Blanche deny he said what he said. #Trump was lucky #jurors weren’t there.

"You've presented nothing," Merchan said to Blanche, & that was after he’d been presenting his argument for ~20 mins.

Trump grew more animated when Merchan pushed back on Blanche.
Several occasions when the judge was speaking, Trump turned to his other lawyers at the defense table & whispered to them.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #GagOrder

Justice #Merchan noted that on Trump’s post about #JesseWatters's statements, #Trump didn’t quote the #FauxNews commentator directly.

"Your client manipulated what was said & put it in quotes," Merchan said. Blanche agreed that it wasn’t a true repost, but argued that it still wasn’t clear that it violated the #GagOrder. [sure]

Merchan wanted to conclude at that point, but Blanche continued arguing, “This gag order we are trying to comply w/it,” he said.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial

@Nonilex

Took me some hunting to look up the exact word, but this seems a close relative of the rhetorical gambit of "apophasis" wherein one brings up a topic but insists it shouldn't be brought up

"As a rhetorical device, it can serve various purposes, often dependent on the relationship of the speaker to the addressee and the extent of their shared knowledge. Apophasis is rarely literal; instead, it conveys meaning through implications that may depend on this context."

You see a lot of this hidden behind the phrases "many people are saying" or "just asking questions" which Trump uses a lot