After his court appearance on Tuesday in his New York hush money trial, former President Donald Trump took to social media to blast Judge Juan Merchan.
In a post to Truth Social, Trump wrote, “HIGHLY CONFLICTED, TO PUT IT MILDLY, JUDGE JUAN MERCHAN, HAS TAKEN AWAY MY CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH. EVERYBODY IS ALLOWED TO TALK AND LIE ABOUT ME, BUT I AM NOT ALLOWED TO DEFEND MYSELF. THIS IS A KANGAROO COURT, AND THE JUDGE SHOULD RECUSE HIMSELF!”
Earlier during the court proceedings, Merchan had been annoyed with Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche during a hearing on the gag order violation which prosecutors raised on Monday. This happened as Trump’s lawyers tried to argue against Trump’s alleged gag order violations, saying that Trump’s statement was in response to attacks made to him by witnesses Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels.
Merchan asked Blanche to provide examples of the attacks Trump faced from Cohen and Daniels that prompted him to speak against them. However, Blanche could not mention a specific example, prompting Merchan to warn Blanche that he was “losing all credibility with the court.”
In an attempt to fight back, Blanche pointed out to the judge that the prosecution was allowed as much time as they desired to lay out their case for the gag order violations.
In response, Merchan said, “They were answering my questions.”
“[The DA’s office] has presented 10 exhibits and the defense has presented nothing. I’ve asked you eight or nine times, ‘show me the exact post that he was responding to’ and you haven’t been able to do that once,” he added.
Blanche also tried to defend Trump’s other gag order violations by saying they were political in nature and right for him as a presidential candidate. He also claimed that Trump reposting an article from a third party like a news outlet cannot count as a violation.
However, that argument was rejected by Merchan, who asked how such articles could appear on the former president’s account if he did not approve them.
“It’s your client’s position that when he was reposting these things, he was not violating the gag order?” the judge asked.
Before his social media post, Trump had called Merchan a “highly conflicted judge” while speaking to reporters.
“I’m not allowed to talk, but people are allowed to talk about me. I’d love to talk to you people. I’d love to say what’s on my mind, but I’ve got a gag order,” he said, adding, “I don’t believe anything has happened like this. It’s a disgrace and it’s totally unconstitutional,” he added.
