Donald Trump has posted after Kevin McCarthy’s removal as Speaker of the House, “Why is it that Republicans are always fighting among themselves, why aren’t they fighting the Radical Left Democrats who are destroying our Country?”
According to Mediaite, former President Donald Trump continued his attack on the judge overseeing his civil fraud trial in New York as he spoke to the press before entering the courtroom. CNN’s anchor John Berman observed Trump’s consistent targeting of the judge and the attorney general handling the case, emphasizing that this approach was no longer an exception but a central strategy of Trump’s legal defense.
Berman highlighted that the New York judge had already ruled in favor of New York Attorney General Letitia James in a summary judgment, holding Trump liable for fraudulent asset valuation practices that spanned over a decade and subjecting him to a $250 million penalty. He then turned to legal analyst Elie Honig for his perspective on Trump’s repeated attacks on the judge.
Honig began by acknowledging Trump’s similar sentiments expressed on his social media platform and called Trump’s strategy “counterintuitive” as he openly attacked the judge who would render the verdict. He suggested that Trump may realize he is likely to lose the case and is adopting this strategy to make a political appeal and possibly set the stage for an appeal based on procedural issues or perceived bias by the judge.
Anchor Sara Sidner chimed in, expressing concern about the consequences of Trump’s attacks, especially the dangerous threats that result when he labels individuals like the judge and attorney general as racists. Honig agreed, stating that while defendants have the right to criticize prosecutors, the other party, and judges, there is a line that should not be crossed. He pointed out that such inflammatory statements could lead to serious repercussions and potentially even a gag order in certain cases, citing a federal case in Washington, D.C., where a judge was considering a gag order as a response to Trump’s statements.
In sum, Trump’s ongoing attacks on the judge and other parties involved in his legal cases may have significant legal and political implications, and they are raising concerns about the potential consequences of his rhetoric.
“Yeah, for sure. And Donald Trump has put similar sentiments on his true social feed. It’s a counterintuitive strategy to openly attack the person who’s going to be rendering the verdict in this case, the judge,” Honig began, adding:
It seems to me Donald Trump’s strategy here is essentially damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. He understands he’s not going to kiss up to this judge. He’s not going to try to please this judge. I think he realizes he’s going to lose. As John said, he already has lost the first count, the most important count.
I think he’s trying to make, A, a political appeal, B, I think his legal approach here is going to be his lawyers. They’re going to be hoping to set the stage for appeal, hoping that they can find something that was procedurally incorrect, find some sort of bias in the judge that will justify an appeal. But he’s leaning into this for sure.
“Can we just talk about what the words that he used, because he’s done this before, and every time he goes after the judge or the attorney general in saying that she’s racist, they get threats like this is actually dangerous for them every time he does it,” added anchor Sara Sidner.
“And I do think we have to call it out every time we get used to it, because he does it every single time. But there are real consequences to these statements,” Honig replied, adding:
They are, in my view, what we just heard is over the line. Look, you are allowed as a defendant in a criminal case or a civil case. You’re allowed to criticize the prosecutor, you’re allowed to criticize the other party. You’re allowed to criticize the judge. Again, query whether that’s a smart decision, but you can do that. But there is a line.
And when you get to the point of calling the attorney general a racist, when you get to the point of saying some of the things that I won’t repeat about this, AG about other prosecutors, about the judge, that becomes dangerous. And the question is, will either the prosecutors in any of these cases or the judges in any of these cases do anything about it? We see that starting to happen now in one of the criminal cases, the federal case in D.C., the judge is considering a gag order as we speak.
“And by the way, these statements that we’re hearing today probably aren’t going to help Donald Trump in arguing against that,”.”
