‘You’re losing all credibility’: Gag order hearing in Trump hush-money case goes very poorly for the defense

Donald Trump glares at a camera in court

Former President Donald Trump appears in Manhattan criminal court on Tuesday, April 23, 2024 in New York. (Curtis Means/DailyMail.com via AP, Pool)

A defense attorney for former president Donald Trump put on some kind of a show in lower Manhattan late Tuesday morning, but the judge overseeing the hush-money prosecution was not entertained.

During a contempt hearing over alleged gag order violations, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan offered a dim appreciation of arguments advanced on Trump’s behalf.

“Mr. Blanche, you’re losing all credibility,” the judge told Trump’s lead defense attorney Todd Blanche as the hearing drew to a close, according to a report by Courthouse News reporter Erik Uebelacker. “You’re losing all credibility with the court.”

To hear the prosecution tell it, the defense’s likely loss has been a long time coming — and perhaps even a calculated risk at martyrdom.

After a short first day in court on Monday afternoon, the 77-year-old defendant relatively briefly addressed his former fixer, Michael Cohen, 57, who is likely to be called by the state as a witness in the case.

“The things he got in trouble for were things that had nothing to do with me,” Trump said to an assembled crowd of reporters, photographers, and general onlookers outside the Chinatown-adjacent courthouse. “He got in trouble. He went to jail. This has nothing to do with me. This had to do with the taxicab company that he owned, which is just something he owned, and medallions and borrowing money and a lot of things, but it had nothing to do with me.”

That declaration from Trump regarding Cohen, and more, prosecutors told the court, should not have been made.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, in a series of pretrial letters, motions and in-court complaints from his top lieutenants, has previously accused the defendant of violating the two iterations of the limited gag order issued by Merchan against the defendant.

During the hearing, Assistant District Attorney Christopher Conroy argued Trump has violated the gag order “repeatedly and hasn’t stopped,” which poses “a very real threat” to the trial, according to a report by New York Daily News reporter Molly Crane-Newman.

Aside from the public Cohen comments, the defendant has penned and sent social media posts about his former attorney, adult film actress Stormy Daniels, her own former attorney Michael Avenatti, and even the jury selection process itself, the prosecutor noted.

The defendant’s commentary on the inner workings of the trial process, Conroy argued, was especially “disturbing” and resulted in at least one juror bowing out of the trial over harassment concerns, according to a report by Just Security fellow Adam Klasfeld.

The next day, Conroy noted, a juror wound up getting cold feet because of the fear of disclosure of personal information.

“We ended up losing a juror,” Conroy says, adding that was what the gag order was designed to prevent.

— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) April 23, 2024

Blanche attempted to convey the notion that his client was simply responding to political attacks from political enemies. Trump, his attorney argued, has the right to respond to political speech.

Merchan reportedly took issue with the idea that Trump was responding in some instances — noting that at least one of the defendant’s Truth Social media posts preceded a post made by Cohen.

As for Daniels, whose alleged sexual dalliance with the defendant — and its concomitant alleged cover-up — is the genesis of the falsified business records prosecution itself, Blanche suggested his client had been targeted by the recent release of her documentary on Peacock.

“He’s running for president,” Blanche said. “He has to respond to that.”

Merchan, again, was reportedly less than convinced.

In one instance, the judge and the lawyer came to an agreement that a statement from Daniels disavowing the affair, was not, in fact “just found,” as a Trump social media post sent earlier this month claimed.

The judge then tried to prise information as to what, specifically, Trump might have been responding to when he posted Daniels’ years-old — and since recanted — disavowal of their alleged tryst.

Blanche reportedly came up empty-handed.

The court then moved onto another Cohen-focused attack. Blanche said the commentary was not meant to influence the trial itself but, rather, was a broader criticism of U.S. jurisprudence in action.

“It’s attacking the People, and the system, for not prosecuting Mr. Cohen for lying,” Blanche reportedly said — adding that his client was arguing there are “two systems of justice in this courtroom.”

That was, apparently, the wrong answer.

“There’s two systems of justice in this courtroom?” Merchan angrily snapped back. “That’s what you’re saying?”

Blanche replied his client was, in fact, making that argument.

Later, the defense sought to argue over, and seek clarity on, how the gag order does or does not apply to reposting social media content.

Merchan asked for case law to support the defense’s argument that reposts should not be treated the same as an original post.

“I don’t have any case law to support that,” Trump’s lawyer reportedly essayed in response. “It’s just common sense.”

Again, the court was not taken with the argument.

As a way of short-circuiting this discussion, the judge returned to the defendant’s post quoting Fox News personality Jesse Watters. As it turned out, Trump’s post paraphrased what Watters had actually said.

“So your client manipulated what was said and put it in quotes, is that correct?” Merchan asked.

Blanche, taking issue with the court’s use of the word “manipulated,” ultimately agreed the altered Watters quote was “not a repost.”

As the hearing drew to a close, the defense attorney insisted his client was “trying” to comply with the gag order. The court, quite clearly leaning toward the state, dismissed this sop-like argument out of hand — but declined to issue a ruling from the bench.

In all, the prosecution claimed 10 violations of the gag order by the 45th president so far. In their own presentation, the Empire State’s representatives made clear they only want fines of $1,000 apiece for the violations — and a warning about potential jail time.

But, they cautioned, while they don’t want jail yet, it seems Trump himself might want the notoriety of a short time behind bars.

“Defendant seems to be angling for that,” Conroy mused.

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‘You’re losing all credibility’: Gag order hearing in Trump hush-money case goes very poorly for the defense

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‘You’re losing all credibility’: Gag order hearing in Trump hush-money case goes very poorly for the defense

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