Former President Donald Trump recently showcased remarkable restraint in his daily pre-trial rant to themedia while also showing how a gag order can be effective via Mediaite.
It has been noted that the former president on trial for hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels is currently under strict orders from Judge Juan Merchan to refrain from mentioning any witnesses by name. He has even ruled the subsequent punishment for breaking the gag order would be incarceration.
Trump has often taken to reading opinion pieces from conservative legal media personalities, and Friday morning was no different. While he read printed pages and citing Fox News contributors like Miranda Devine, Jonathan Turley, Byron York, and others, Trump kept interrupting himself so as not to mention specific former and future witness names like Ms. Daniels or Michael Cohen, who is set to testify Monday.
“These are all stories that just came out; these are all stories that are 100% that this is a disgraceful trial. And I’ll be going over them with you, relating later how the left tried to do things to hurt Trump,” he said. “I’m just going to say two things because I can’t read. Sure. Your words. I’m not allowed to read them. I use the words, this guy wants to put me in jail. He’s corrupt.“
It has also come to light that the former president continued to hit many of the same talking points he’s made in the same pre-trial rants and social media posts, but returned to the threat of jail time if he were to break the gag order:
But again, when you have a rigged judge, bad things can happen. Very bad things can happen. But that’s what I’m trying to. I’m trying to edit this very quickly in front of you, because if I mention the wrong word, they’ll come out here and they’ll take me out to the jail someplace, because that’s the way it is with this judge. He wants to show how tough he is.
Trump has largely remained defiant despite the judge’s strict admonishment that he abide by the gag order, though this might be the first time we’ve seen him show remarkable restraint in real time.
