How Many Times Does Trump Get To Violate His Gag Order Before Judge Merchan Jails Him?

It's high time.

Apr 18, 2024

It’s the fourth day since the beginning of Donald Trump’s first criminal trial of many, his third day back in court. And he really really really really really seems to want Judge Juan Merchan to put him in jail for violating gag orders. He’s clearly testing the judge, and if ever there was a fuck around and find out moment, this oughta be it. In any sane world, Trump should spend at least the next 30 days in lockup for this:

On his weak and failing Truth Social site, Trump wrote, “They are catching undercover Liberal Activists lying to the Judge in order to get on the Trump Jury,” attributing that quote to Fox News host Jesse Watters.

It’s possible Trump thinks the manner by which he’s just violated his gag order is akin to that old children’s joke about “Not touching, can’t get mad!” They’re not HIS words, he’s just saying what Jesse Watters said! So that’s all the more reason to bury Trump underneath Rikers and forget about him until the guilty verdict comes down. It’s not cute.

Just Security’s Ryan Goodman tweeted the section of the gag order that says Trump is barred from “making […] public statements about any prospective juror or any juror in this criminal proceeding." That’s fairly clear. This is all basic witness intimidation, which is pretty de rigueur for Trump, a common low-class criminal.

Of course, Jesse Watters is lying, because Jesse Watters is a liar. He stared at the camera yesterday and said, “they are trying to rig this jury,” followed by the part Trump quoted about liberal activists trying to sneak onto the jury. Of course, Watters conceded that prospective jurors are getting tossed when defense attorneys find (and read out loud in front of Trump) their hilarious memes about how Trump should die in prison.

Watters then whined that most of the jury are “corporate lawyers with DEI all over their firms’ websites” and a “20-year-old white girl who works for Disney and loves to dance.” (The thing about DEI websites makes sense as a disqualifying factor only if you’re a couchbound lunatic who watches Fox News with your mouth half open all day. Also, Fox News has a DEI section on its website. So does Trump Media & Technology Group.)

And to make sure Trump saw it, Watters tweeted it. Is there some statute under which Judge Merchan can bury Watters under Rikers with Trump?

Prosecutors said this morning that Trump has violated his gag order seven times. Meanwhile, one juror who had already been empaneled was dismissed because, thanks to identifying characteristics published in media reports, her friends and family had apparently figured out she was a juror, and she was scared of having her identity revealed.

Meanwhile, Trump and the mediocre, milquetoast MAGA men who support him think the law doesn’t apply to them, and they’re terrified. They will do anything they can to intimidate these jurors. And Trump will keep doing this until he is physically stopped.

Donald Trump needs to be taught that he isn’t the boss here, and that as a criminal defendant, he doesn’t have the same rights as a normal citizen who isn’t a criminal defendant, as CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin explained last night to Anderson Cooper. He is a case number.

And it’s up to the judge to stop this shit. (Merchan isn’t ruling on Trump’s gag order violations until a hearing he’s holding on the matter on April 23.) Oh, and by the way, in case this needs to be said, thousand-dollar fines for gag order infractions aren’t going to work.

Let Trump scream and wail about it from jail, where we can’t hear him.