Trump blames Cohen for breaking gag order as judge fires back at jury comments

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The judge presiding over Donald Trump’s hush money trial fired back at his attorney’s attempts to dodge punishment for his comments about the jury – remarks that appear likely to violate a gag order that blocks him from public attacks about witnesses and jurors.

On Thursday, New York Justice Juan Merchan grew increasingly frustrated with arguments from defence attorney Todd Blanche, who claimed that the trial is “political persecution” and a “political trial” in a “jurisdiction” that is politically biased against the former president.

Judge Merchan cut him off.

“Did he violate the gag order? That’s what I want to know,” he said. “He spoke about the jury, right? And he said the jury was 95 per cent Democrats and the jury had been rushed through, and the implication that this was not a fair jury?”

Earlier this month, while awaiting the judge’s decision on whether to impose sanctions on previous gag order breaches, Manhattan prosecutors accused Mr Trump of violating the order four more times within just three days of the trial’s first week – including statements that were made right outside the court’s doors – and a statement that took aim at the jury that is now seated across from him.

On Tuesday, he was fined $9,000 for nine other violations and threatened with jailtime if he keeps it up.

Prosecutors are now asking the judge to fine him $1,000 for each of the four new alleged violations.

On 22 April, during a nearly nine-minute rant in the court hallway, Mr Trump said his former lawyer and trial witness Michael Cohen “wasn’t very good in a lot of ways in terms of representation” and that Cohen “got caught lying, pure lying” during Mr Trump’s civil fraud trial down the street.

Judge Merchan noted that when Mr Trump walks over to reporters at the courthouse to deliver several minutes-long press conferences, “it wasn’t the press who went to him. He went to the press.”

“You’re telling me the scrutiny is outrageous. Nobody is telling your client where to stand that day,” Judge Merchan said on Tuesday.

“Judge,” said Mr Blanche, briefly pausing. “I agree with that.”

Mr Trump Trump also went off on Cohen during an 11-minute interview with a Pennsylvania TV station that aired on 23 April.

“Michael Cohen is a convicted liar and he’s got no credibility whatsoever,” he said.

“This is the most critical time, the time the proceeding has to be protected,” Assistant District Attorney Christopher Conroy told the judge on Thursday.

Mr Blanche said Mr Trump “can’t just say ‘no comment’ repeatedly.”

He also pulled up several social media posts from Cohen, who is “inviting and almost daring Trump to respond to everything he’s saying,” he said.

In one post, Cohen told Mr Trump: “Keep messing with me Donald and I won’t send any money to your commissary.”

Another post showed an image of Mr Trump in an orange superhero suit with the caption “Super Victim.”

Mr Blanche also quoted a post from Cohen calling Mr Trump “Von ShitzInPantz,” an interview with Politico in which he called Mr Trump a liar, and Cohen’s “nightly” TikTok videos discussing the case and Mr Trump’s campaign.

“This is not a man that needs protection from a gag order,” Mr Blanche said.

In an interview with far-right network Real American’s Voice, Mr Trump said the jury “was picked so fast – 95 per cent 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,” he said.

He made those comments after the jury was selecteed – and after the judge admonished Mr Trump in court for “audibly” commenting about a juror and “gesticulating” towards her.

“I won’t tolerate it. I will not have any jurors intimidated in this courtroom,” the judge said on 16 April. “I want to make that crystal clear.”

On 23 April, hours before former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker resumed his trial testimony, Mr Trump said that “David has been“very nice” and a “nice guy.”

“The defendant knows what he’s doing. The defendant talks about the testifying witness, says nice things and does it in front of the camera,” Mr Conroy told the judge on Thursday.

It’s “deliberate and calculated,” he added. “Pecker, be nice. Anyone else hearing this, I have a platform. … [The statements are] deliberate shots across the bow to anyone who will come into this courtroom to talk about the defendant and talk about what he did.”

At his rallies in Wisconsin and Michigan on Wednesday, Mr Trump appeared to avoid violating the gag but took shots at the judge, who, along with prosecutors, is fair game. The gag blocks him from speaking out about witnesses, jurors, court staff and their families.

In Wisconsin, he called Judge Merchan “crooked” and “conflicted.”

“I’ve got to do two of these things a day. You know why? Because I’m in New York all the time with the Biden trial,” Mr Trump said in Michigan, repeating a baseless conspiracy that President Joe Biden is directing his criminal cases. “It’s a fake trial. They do it to try and take your powers away, try and take your candidate away.”

So far, the former president has been fined $24,000 for violating trial gag orders in his criminal case and in his civil fraud trial, where Justice Athur Engoron imposed $15,000 in penalties for Mr Trump’s statements about his court staff. Mr Trump’s attorney Alina Habba cut a check to the court on her client’s behalf.