(Photo
by
Jabin
Botsford/The
Washington
Post
via
Getty
Images)
As
of
4pm
on
Wednesday,
Justice
Juan
Merchan
had
not
delivered
a
ruling
following
yesterday’s
show
cause
hearing
as
to
why
Donald
Trump
should
not
be
held
in
contempt
for
violating
the
gag
order
in
his
pending
criminal
trial.
The
hearing
was brutal,
with
the
judge
warning
Trump’s
lawyer
Todd
Blanche
that
he
was
“losing
all
credibility
with
the
court.”
Blanche
continues
to
insist
that
there
is
an
unwritten
exception
to
the
order
for
political
responses,
so
Trump
is
free
to
abuse
Michael
Cohen
or
Stormy
Daniels
if
they
are
mean
to
him
first.
Blanche
also
insisted
that
it
was
just
“common
sense”
that
Trump
is
free
to
repost
articles
saying
things
he
himself
could
not,
although
he
was
unable
to
produce
any
caselaw
to
back
up
this
proposition.
Speaking
to
reporters,
Trump
defended
himself
by
saying
that
he
couldn’t
possibly
be
expected
to
read
a
whole,
entire
article
from
the
bottomless
joybook
his
aide
Natalie
Harp
generates
for
him
on
a
portable
printer.
And
how
is
it
his
fault
if
there’s
a
mention
of
a
witness
or
juror
like
three
paragraphs
in.
And
meanwhile
Chatty
Cathy
isn’t
making
the
job
easier
for
Blanche.
Here
he
is
flapping
his
yap
about
Cohen
to
a
Pennsylvania
ABC
affiliate.
Asked
about
his
“concern
level”
about
Michael
Cohen’s
testimony,
Trump
replied
that
Cohen
is
“a
convicted
liar
and
he’s
got
no
credibility
whatsoever.”
This
would
appear
to
violate
the
court’s
order
barring
Trump
from
“making
or
directing
others
to
make
public
statements
about
known
or
reasonably
foreseeable
witnesses
concerning
their
potential
participation
in
the
investigation
or
in
this
criminal
proceeding.”
And
good
luck
to
Todd
Blanche
arguing
that
Trump
was
responding
to
an
attack
by
Cohen
or
just
speaking
generally,
not
specifically
about
Cohen’s
participation
in
the
trial.
Trump
went
on
to
repeat
his
social
media
post
praising
all
the
legal
scholars
who
say
that
there’s
no
case
here.
Because
if
Dersh
and
Turley
and
McCarthy
say
it,
and
then
your
aide
prints
it
out
so
you
can
read
one
paragraph
and
then
post
it
online,
then
it must
be
true.
Liz
Dye lives
in
Baltimore
where
she
produces
the
Law
and
Chaos substack and podcast.