‘You Are Losing All Credibility!’ Judge Scorches Trump Lawyer in Heated Exchange Over Gag Order
Donald Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche was scolded in court on Tuesday as his client faced a hearing to determine whether he violated a gag order issued by Judge Juan Merchan.
“You’re losing all credibility with the court!” Merchan told Blanche at one point, according to reporters from the New York Times and other outlets present in the courtroom — as the lawyer made a series of arguments to justify Truth Social posts made by Trump targeting people involved with his Manhattan trial. The gag order prevents the former president from attacking witnesses, court staff, jurors, and family members of those involved in the trial.
Trump is facing more than 30 felony counts of falsifying business documents to conceal hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to cover up an alleged affair. Trump has denied all wrongdoing and claimed the affair never happened.
Merchan informed Blanche he was “losing credibility” on Tuesday after the attorney argued Trump is trying to follow the gag order.
“This gag order,” Blanche told the judge in response. “We are trying to comply with it.”
Blanche got into a tense back and forth with Merchan over an argument that Trump’s reposts on Truth Social do not fall under the guidelines of the gag order. Trump has often reposted a flurry of posts in support of himself. A surprising one came in the form of a “thank you” to convicted felon and federal inmate Michael Avenatti. The lawyer, convicted of defrauding Daniels, has been arguing that Trump cannot get a fair trial in New York, an argument Trump shared.
Trump also shared a quote from Fox News host Jesse Watters, in which he claimed that they are “catching liberal activists lying” to the judge in the hush money trial. Trump shared one line from the larger comments Watters made.
“Your client manipulated what was said and put it in quotes,” the judge told Blanche on Tuesday, arguing Trump’s post was simply quoting one line from Watters and was not a repost.
Blanche argued reposts are Trump confronting “two systems of justice,” which also earned a rebuke from the judge.
“There’s two systems of justice in this courtroom? That’s what you’re saying?” he said.
Judge Merchan pushed back against Blanche’s lengthy argument that reposts on social media would not violate Trump’s gag order, arguing the act is not “passive.” Asked what case law backed up his claims, Blanche said, “I don’t have any case law” and said the argument is “common sense.”
MSNBC’s Vaughn Hillyard reported from Manhattan that Blanche “met the scorn of Judge Merchan” and was “struggling” in court as the judge struggled to understand the lawyer’s arguments.
For posts from Trump that were not reposts from other accounts, Blanche argued those were responses to attacks from Daniels and others, but failed to name the posts that Trump was responding to when pressed by the judge.
Watch above via MSNBC.
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