Left: Stormy Daniels testifies in Manhattan criminal court with Judge Juan Merchan, as a photo of Donald Trump and Daniels is displayed. /Right: Former President Donald Trump speaks to reporters at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York.
On the heels of trial testimony from Stormy Daniels that Donald Trump insulted her by calling her “horse-face” and “sleazebag,” the former president, already held in contempt, may be flirting with yet another violation of his gag order, and potential jail time, after he posted a thinly-veiled diatribe online invoking the same insults when reflecting on his recent experience in criminal court.
The post from the former president was made to Truth Social on Wednesday morning around 8:17 a.m. In it, he said it was a “really bad feeling” to have his right to free speech “unfairly taken from him,” especially when all of the sleazebags, lowlifes, and grifters that you oppose are allowed to say anything they want.
“It is hard to sit back and listen to lies and false statements be made against you knowing that if you respond, even in the most modest fashion, you are told by a Corrupt and Highly Conflicted judge that you be put IN PRISON, maybe for a long period of time,” Trump reflected.
He went on to criticize his prosecution as a “sophisticated hit job” from President Joe Biden and he also called out Judges Arthur Engoron and Lewis Kaplan, who oversaw his civil fraud and defamation cases, respectively, in New York.
Left: A post from Donald Trump from April 10, 2024 on his social media site Truth Social invoking the same “sleazebag” language at Stormy Daniels, now a witness in his case. /Right: Trump’s May 8, 2024 Truth Social post where he invokes the insult but does not name Daniels. Screengrabs from Truth Social.
Appearing on CNN, Just Security legal analyst and former Defense Department special counsel Ryan Goodman argued the thin line Trump is treading between permissible speech under his current gag and what he said online seems to have been breached.
If prosecutors wanted to highlight this message to the judge, they would have a “strong case,” he said.
“Its obvious from context who Donald Trump is talking about. If you know nothing, you know he’s probably talking about Stormy Daniels testimony and having to sit back and listen to it, ” Goodman said.
He continued:
But then if you know about some of the other social media posts that he has put out including one in which he identifies her as a “sleazebag” who was lying and making misrepresentations, that’s one of the prior Truth Social posts where he actually is quote-tweeting Michael Avenatti, her lawyer; it’s about her. And that’s one of the Truth Social posts that Justice Merchan has said violated the gag order.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Judge Merchan did hold Trump in contempt for that message and found these Truth Social posts of Trump’s have an overall negative impact on the witnesses or their testimony, and the integrity of the case.
“It is obviously denigrating to call someone a ‘sleazebag’ and say that they are lying and misrepresenting,” Goodman said Wednesday.
Watch this space.
Former President Trump has made a Truth Social post that appears to violate his gag order by going after Stormy Daniels.
Extraordinary since Justice Merchan recently warned the defendant that incarceration may be the next step.
I discussed @OutFrontCNN pic.twitter.com/rk96tKWs0E
— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) May 9, 2024
Trump can say what he wants about the judge or Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in the hush-money and election interference case, but going after witnesses is off-limits, per his gag order.
When Merchan warned Trump on Monday that he held him in contempt, he cautioned that after 10 contempt violations, he might consider a jail sentence seriously.
“There are many reasons why imprisonment is truly the last resort,” Merchan told Trump, explaining that putting Trump in jail would likely “obstruct the proceedings.”
“But ultimately, I have a job to do. Your continued willful violations are a direct attack on the rule of law. I cannot allow that to continue. As much as I’ve wanted to avoid a jail sentence, I will impose it if necessary and if appropriate,” Merchan said on Monday.
During testimony on Tuesday afternoon, Daniels told the jury about how Trump called her “horse-face” and “sleazebag,” among other insults. Trump’s lawyers, in the meantime, tried to persuade the jury that Daniels’ testimony was not reliable and that she fabricated lurid details of her encounter with him.
Ahead of the 2016 election, Daniels received $130,000 to keep quiet about the affair.
Trump is facing 34 felony charges in New York for falsifying business records.
This week, he told reporters outside the courthouse that if Merchan sent him to jail, he would be willing to go.
“This judge has given me a gag order and said you’ll go to jail if you violate it, and honestly, you know what, our Constitution is much more important than jail. It’s not even close. I’ll make that sacrifice any day,” he said.