Donald Trump’s campaign stated that the former president did not breach a judge’s gag order in his Manhattan criminal trial, despite reports that he deleted a social media post on Tuesday morning within an hour of posting it initially.
According to The Hill, in the post, Trump voiced dissatisfaction over his legal team’s inadequate time to prepare for the upcoming witness in the criminal trial.
“The gag order imposed by conflicted Judge Juan Merchan in the lawless Manhattan DA case is unconstitutional and un-American. President Trump has not violated this wrongful edict by a partisan operative,” campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told Newsmax. “The threat to throw in jail the 45th President of the United States and the leading candidate in the 2024 Presidential Election for exercising his First Amendment rights is a Third World Authoritarian tactic typical of Crooked Joe Biden and his comrades.”
Merchan declared on Monday that he would hold the former president in contempt of court for the tenth instance of violating a gag order and indicated he would contemplate jailing him for any subsequent breaches.
In a since-deleted Truth Social post at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Trump said he has “just recently been told who the witness is today,” The Hill reported.
“This is unprecedented, no time for lawyers to prepare,” the former president wrote. “No Judge has ever run a trial in such a biased and partisan way.”
It’s been reported since that the witness is adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Fox News added:
Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen paid Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, a $130,000 hush money payment ahead of the 2016 presidential election in an effort to keep her silent on allegations of an affair with Trump in 2006.
The payments to Daniels were first revealed in January 2018 in a Wall Street Journal report that said Cohen and Daniels’ lawyer negotiated a nondisclosure agreement to prevent her from publicly discussing the supposed sexual encounter with Trump.
At the time, though, Cohen, Trump, and even Stormy Daniels denied the arrangement.
In his post, Trump also took aim at Merchan himself.
“He is CROOKED & HIGHLY CONFLICTED, even taking away my First Amendment Rights. Now he’s threatening me with JAIL & THEY HAVE NO CASE — This according to virtually all Legal Scholars & Experts! Why isn’t the Fake News Media reporting his Conflict?” Trump said, The Hill reported.
