MANHATTAN (CN) — The judge in Donald Trump’s criminal trial appeared to have his patience tested on Tuesday as the former president’s lawyers tried to thwart accusations that Trump “repeatedly” violated a court-issued gag order.
“There was absolutely no willful violation of the gag order,” argued Trump attorney Todd Blanche.
Meanwhile, prosecutor Chris Conroy said that Trump “violated this order repeatedly and he hasn’t stopped.”
New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan gave the parties a hearing on Tuesday to determine whether Trump’s recent social media activity violated the order, which was issued to shield expected witnesses, court employees and the families of those involved in the case from public attacks.
Conroy claimed that Trump, through a combination of posts on social media and his campaign website, violated the order 10 times. Several of those posts criticized likely trial witnesses Michael Cohen — his ex-lawyer and “fixer” — and Stormy Daniels, the adult film star to whom Trump supposedly paid hush money to cover up an affair.
“No one is off limits to the defendant,” Conroy said.
But Blanche argued that his client’s online criticisms were in response to political attacks, and thus not prohibited under the order.
“There is no dispute that President Trump is facing a barrage of political attacks from all sides, including from the two witnesses,” Blanche said. “He is allowed to respond to political attacks.”
Prosecutors countered that Trump was directly attacking trial witnesses and, at times, even jurors, under the veil of free political speech.
“Throwing a ‘MAGA’ into a post doesn’t make it political,” Conroy said. “It may make it more ominous … It makes no sense. He says whatever he needs to say to get the results that he wants.”
Blanche argued that several of the posts at issue were reposts, which he said shouldn’t be restricted under the gag order at all. Merchan wanted case law to support Blanche's claim.
“I don’t have any case law to support that,” Blanche said. “It’s just common sense.”
Blanche also failed to pull up any of the so-called political attacks that he said Trump was responding to in other posts. This drew the ire of the judge, who eventually chided Blanche.
“You have presented nothing,” Merchan said. “I have asked you eight or nine times to show me the exact posts that he was responding to, and you have been unable to do that even once.”
As Blanche wrapped up his argument, he told the court that Trump is trying his best to comply with the court’s gag order. Merchan cut him off.
“Mr. Blanche, you are losing all credibility,” the judge said. “I have to tell you that right now. You are losing all credibility with the court.”
Prosecutors want Trump held in criminal contempt and fined $1,000 per inflammatory post. They aren’t seeking to jail Trump now, but Conroy said that the former president “seems to be angling for that.”
Merchan didn’t immediately issue a ruling after the hearing, instead opting to get the proceedings moving by continuing testimony from David Pecker.
Pecker is the former CEO of American Media, which owned the National Enquirer and a slew of other news publications. Prosecutors claim that Pecker partnered with Trump during his presidential run to publish positive stories in the Enquirer about Trump and negative ones about his political opponents. Pecker corroborated that claim on Tuesday.
“I said what I would do is, I would run or publish positive stories about Mr. Trump and I would publish negative stories about his opponents,” Pecker said. “I said I would be your eyes and ears … if I hear anything negative about yourself or if I hear anything about women selling stories, I would notify Michael Cohen.”
Pecker added that he anticipated having to buy off stories from Trump’s ex-lovers since Trump was “well-known as the most eligible bachelor and dated the most beautiful women.”
Pecker says he paid $30,000 for the rights to one of those stories — a rumor sourced from an ex-doorman that Trump impregnated his housekeeper. He said the payment was unusually high, and despite claiming the story to be untrue, he paid the doorman anyway to protect Trump’s campaign.
“I made the decision to buy the story because of the potential embarrassment it would have to the campaign and Mr. Trump,” Pecker said.
Trump is standing trial on charges that he falsified business records to cover up hush money paid to Daniels, a move that prosecutors claim was part of the broader scheme by Trump to tamper with the 2016 presidential election by killing negative press about his campaign.
“It was election fraud, plain and simple,” prosecutor Michael Colangelo said Monday during the district attorney’s opening statement. “We’ll never know — and it doesn't matter — whether this conspiracy was the difference maker in a close election.”
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg brought the charges against Trump last year. The former president pleaded not guilty to the 34 counts of falsifying business records.
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