(Photo
by
Spencer
Platt/Getty
Images)
It’s
been
five
weeks
since
Justice
Juan
Merchan
signed
the
gag
order
in
Donald
Trump’s
criminal
trial
for
creating
false
business
records
to
hide
the
hush
money
payment
to
Stormy
Daniels.
In
that
time,
the
court
has
expanded
the
order
once
and
signed
three
orders
to
show
cause
why
the
defendant
should
not
be
held
in
contempt
and
sanctioned
for
violating
it.
As
Trump
himself
might
say,
no
one
has
ever
seen
anything
like
this
before.
On
Tuesday
of
last
week,
Justice
Merchan
held
a
hearing
on
the
first
alleged
violations
at
which
Trump’s
lawyer
Emil
Bove
attempted
to
argue
that
RTs
are
not
endorsements
and
thus
it
was
totally
fine
for
Trump
to
quote
other
people
saying
things
he’s
not
allowed
to
under
the
gag.
Asked
for
any
caselaw
backing
up
this
position,
Trump’s
lead
counsel
Todd
Blanche
admitted
that
he
had
noneTodd
Blanche
admitted
that
he
had
none,
but
called
it
“common
sense.”
Trump
immediately
marched
out
of
the
hearing
and
violated
the
order
anew
by
attacking
Michael
Cohen,
prompting
yet
another
show
cause
motion
and
a
second
contempt
hearing
scheduled
for
Thursday
of
this
week.
And
the
fun
looks
to
be
continuing,
thanks
to
Trump’s
sparklemagic
lawyer
Alina
Habba.
Fresh
off
her
success
representing
Trump
in
the
civil
fraud
trial
where
he
and
his
eponymous
family
business
were
fined
$464
million,
Alina
has
thoughts
to
share
about
New
York
juries.
Again.
Spoiler
Alert:
These
jurors
are
bad!
“President
Trump
has
done
absolutely
nothing
wrong.
He
should
win,”
she
fulminated
on
Fox
this
weekend.
“And
if
he’s
given
a
fair
jury,
if
he’s
given
a
fair
court,
if
he’s
not
in
Manhattan,
which
is
a
completely
blue
state
where
they
only
polled
blue
state
members
of
the
jury
on
purpose,
well
that’s
a
different
game.”
It’s
not
clear
what
Habba
means
by
“only
poll[ing]
blue
state
members
of
the
jury.”
Nor
is
it
clear
why
she
thinks
Trump
is
entitled
to
be
tried
outside
the
venue
where
the
false
business
records
were
created
—
i.e. where
he
did
the
alleged
crimes.
But
she’s
been
banging
this
drum
a
lot
lately.
Last
week
she
complained
to
Newsmax’s
Greg
Kelly
that
she
didn’t
have
high
hopes
“that
the
jury
will
do
the
right
thing,”
because
“we’re
in
a
blue
state,
as
you
know,
Greg,
and
I
think
everything’s
by
design.”
(Manhattan
is
a
state
now?)
The
CivPro
understander
is
similarly
pissed
that
“We’re
in
a
case
that
was
eight
years
old,
over
the
statute
of
limitations,
was
denied
by
Cy
Vance,
then
brought
only
after
President
Trump decided
he
was
going
to
run
for
office.”
But
Habba’s
ranting
may
offend
more
than
the
concept
of
linear
time.
(How
many
years
ago
was
October
of
2017?)
Because
the
gag
order
bars
Trump
from
“making
or
directing
others
to
make
public
statements
about
any
prospective
juror
or
any
juror
in
this
criminal
proceeding.”
And
Habba
would
certainly
appear
to
be
acting
as
Trump’s
agent,
since
she’s
both
his
lawyer
and
“legal
spokesperson
and
general
counsel”
at
his
Save
America
PAC.
Indeed
Habba’s
statement
slagging
the
jurors
as
illegally
biased
bears
a
strong
resemblance
to
Trump’s
remarks
on
April
22,
as
quoted
in
the
DA’s
latest
show
cause
motion:
But
this
judge,
uh,
said
that
I
can’t
get
away
from
the
trial.
You
know
he’s
rushing
the
trial
like
crazy.
Nobody’s
ever
seen
a
thing
go
like
this.
That
jury
was
picked
so
fast
—
95%
democrats.
The
area’s
mostly
all
democrat.
You
think
of
it
as
a
—
just
a
purely
democrat
area.
It’s
a
very
unfair
situation
that
I
can
tell
you.
As
prosecutors
note,
“This
statement
relates
to
this
proceeding,
and
to
a
prospective
juror
or
juror
in
this
proceeding.”
And
so
does
Habba’s!
As
of
this
writing,
Justice
Merchan
has
not
yet
ruled
on
the
first
tranche
of
violations.
Countdown
to
another
show
cause
motion
in
3..2…
Liz
Dye
lives
in
Baltimore
where
she
produces
the
Law
and
Chaos
substack and podcast.