They
haven’t
even
picked
a
jury
yet
for
his
New
York
criminal
case,
and
Donald
Trump
is
doing
his
damnedest
to
get
himself
held
in
contempt.
His
in-court
antics
—
falling
asleep,
playing
on
his
phone,
refusing
to
stand
and
face
the
potential
jurors,
being
fed
a
constant
stream
of
happy
news
by
a
young
woman
toting
a
wireless
printer
—
might
do
it
for
a
normal
defendant.
But
the
former
president’s
extrajudicial
statements
have
clearly
violated
the
gag
order
imposed
by
the
court,
forcing
his
lawyers
to
make
ever
more
ridiculous
claims
to
defend
him,
even
before
next
week’s
contempt
hearing.
The
gag
order
imposed
by
Justice
Juan
Merchan
on
March
26
barred
the
defendant
from
“making
or
directing
others
to
make
public
statements”
regarding
witnesses,
line
prosecutors,
court
staff,
and
jurors,
along
with
family
members
of
the
above
parties.
After
Trump
pivoted
to
attacking
Justice
Merchan’s
daughter,
it
was
later
expanded
to
include
family
members
of
the
judge
and
District
Attorney
Alvin
Bragg.
Since
then,
Trump
has
honored
the
edict
more
in
the
breach
than
in
the
observance.
He called
Michael
Cohen
a
“disgraced
attorney
and
felon”
who
has
been
“prosecuted
for
LYING,”
and
quoted
Michael
Avenatti
—
also
a
disgraced
attorney
and
felon!
—
calling
Cohen
and
Stormy
Daniels
sleazebags.
In
the
main,
however,
his
strategy
has
been
to
link
to
or
screenshot
other
people
saying
things
which
he
himself
would
be
barred
from
saying
under
the
gag
order.
Apparently
emboldened
by
the
court’s
lackadaisical
response
to
his
prior
violations,
Trump
went
even
further
on
Wednesday,
simply
slapping
quotation
marks
around
an
attack
on
the
jury
and
attributing
it
to
Jesse
Watters,
the
simpering
douchebag
who
took
over
Tucker
Carlson’s
slot
after
proving
to
Fox’s
bosses
that
he
was
equally
troll-y,
but
insufficiently
influential
to
spark
a
major
lawsuit.
There
is
no
universe
in
which
this
isn’t
a
direct
violation
of
the
prohibition
on
public
statements
about
prospective
jurors.
And,
as
if
to
highlight
the
dangers
from
Trump’s
rhetoric,
the
morning
started
with
one
of
the
jurors
seated
yesterday
requesting
to
be
excused
after
being
immediately
doxxed
thanks
to
the
media’s
detailed
reporting
of
her
biographical
details.
(Since
then
the
media
has
decided
that
it’s
not
strictly
necessary
to
report
the
eye
color,
maiden
name,
and
date
of
last
menstrual
period
for
each
individual
juror.)
The
prosecutors
argued
that
Trump
had
violated
the
gag
order
seven
times
since
they’d
moved
for
a
hearing
on
the
matter.
“It’s
ridiculous
and
it
has
to
stop,”
Assistant
District
Attorney
Chris
Conroy
complained,
adding
that
the
reference
to
jurors
was
“the
most
disturbing
post,
especially
in
light
of
this
morning.”
Trump’s
lawyer
Emil
Bove,
who
spent
a
decade
in
the
US
Attorney’s
Office
in
the
Southern
District
of
New
York
and
now
pretends
to
have
fallen
off
the
turnip
truck
yesterday,
insisted
that
the
order
was
somehow
ambiguous
when
it
came
to
Trump
reposting
content
generated
by
others.
“President
Trump’s
responses
are
political
in
nature.
They’re
intended
to
defend
against
what
Mr.
Cohen
is
saying…
the
gag
order
didn’t
prohibit
responding
to
political
attacks,”
Bove
said,
according
to
the
Daily
Beast.
“One
other
thing.
Only
recently
…
has
DA
taken
the
position
that
reposting
statements
by
others
violates
the
gag
order.”
Bove
even
went
so
far
as
to
credit
his
client
with
“bring[ing]
to
light
some
of
the
ambiguities
in
the
order.”
You
know
…
for
the
sake
of
fleshing
out
the
issues!
This
was
marginally
less
stupid
than
Tuesday
when
Todd
Blanche,
Trump’s
lead
attorney,
invented
a
“responding
to
salacious,
repeated
vehement
attacks
by
these
witnesses”
exception
to
the
order.
But
it
will
be
interesting
to
see
these
guys
put
that
in
writing
when
they
brief
the
contempt
issue
Friday.
Maybe
they
can
get
their
client
to
help
with
the
drafting.
He
seems
super
familiar
with
New
York
criminal
procedure.
People
v.
Trump [Case
Documents
via
Just
Security]
Liz
Dye lives
in
Baltimore
where
she
produces
the
Law
and
Chaos substack and podcast.