YOU CANT MAKE ME!
With Trump’s trial in New York only in session two days, it is ALready clear that the ordinary protocols of the justice system regarding Trump’s flaunting of his direct attacks on the gag order issued by Judge Merchan IS leaving the system creaking from the strain of trying to contain him.
Again, we are faced with the fact that so much of the American system of government depends on the voluntary compliance of everyone involved in order for it to operate smoothly.
Trump has utterly ignored the gag order. Right after the court session was over, he posted a “Truth” calling Merchan a “ridiculously Conflicted Judge,” “a Rigged Judge who is working for the Democrat Party,” a “conflicted and corrupt Judge who shouldn’t be allowed to preside over this Political Hoax,” a “HIGHLY CONFLICTED, TO PUT IT MILDLY, JUDGE” presiding over a “KANGAROO COURT,” and a member of a “New York Cabal run by Crooked Joe Biden’s White House.”
This sort of behavior is why a judge has discretionary power to declare a violator in contempt of court. For most defendants, the penalties - repeated financial fines or the possibility of immediate incarceration - are enough to limit misbehavior.
But this is not the case with Trump. A thousand-dollar penalty for each post violating the gag order? Please. He can make that up in minutes with his latest day of court-complaint fundraising. (Per the bulwarks Mark Caputo, Trump’s fund-raising from week one of the trial is $5.6 million in online donations, including $1.6 million from a single email solicitation blaring that “I’m stuck in Biden’s Corrupt Court AGAIN facing 34 FELONIES AND LIFE IN PRISON. TALK ABOUT TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME!”)
The prosecutors seem to be aware that jailing Trump for contempt would be playing into his hands. “We are not yet seeking an incarceratory penalty,” prosecutor Chris Conroy said at yesterday’s contempt hearing. “Defendant seems to be angling for that.”
The more acting out Trump does, the greater his chances of turning the whole proceeding into a mistrial. It’s an outcome that would dismay any other defendant: resetting the clock on a trial back to the beginning, doubling the loss of time and cash blown in court should prosecutors refile charges. But Trump enjoys a trial sell-by date most defendants do not: the November presidential election.
Conservatism Inc. have quickly found a target in Matthew Colangelo, the prosecutor who delivered the opening statement in the case. Trump frequently went after Colangelo before the gag order theoretically stopped him, but now Trump supporters in Congress and the media have taken up the slack.
Trump allies on Capitol Hill claim that Colangelo, a former attorney with President Biden's Justice Department, left the DOJ specifically to go after Trump. Senator Tom Cotton has stated, "Joe Biden's former No. 3 official at the Department of Justice left D.C. to help go after President Trump in New York." Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso joined Cotton, saying that president Biden "stacked" the Justice Department with with "weak 'defund the police' prosecutors" who are now working for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. House Republican Conference chair Elise Stefanik accused Colangelo of being "part of the far left's witch hunt to wrongfully prosecute President Trump." House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan has been probing Bragg's investigation, requesting testimony earlier this month from Colangelo in his “probe” of Bragg's investigation.
These criticisms reflect how in the Trumpified GOP defending the cult leader amid his many legal issues and going after those prosecuting him is a litmus test for loyalty to Trump.
After all the argument yesterday over Trump’s violations of the gag order, he went on Pennsylvania’s biggest TV station for a lengthy interview, where he raved about the judge being corrupt, the jurors being Democrats committed to finding him guilty, and attacked witnesses personally. It really does look like he is trying to get himself sent to jail, to become the MAGA Martyr - “They’re doing this to me because I fight for you!”
And he personally and publicly committed to taking the stand in his own defense.
The term “contempt of court” is perfectly on point as the most accurate description of Trump’s view of the judge, the proceedings, the state, and the law. Trump believes the only law deserving respect is the law of the jungle. For him, everything else as a contest of wills.
As Rick Wilson noted today in a post at his Substack:
“There’s a massive red flag present in his own behavior as to precisely what it is: Trump, a man who seems to be flailing wildly on Truth Social and in the presence of the cameras, has been rigidly, perfectly disciplined when it comes to David Pecker.
“Not a word. Not a tweet. Not a Truth. Not a single minion on Fox or elsewhere in the MAGAsphere from Trump’s army of lawyers, minions, bootlicks, toadies, thurifers, or acolytes ripping the former National Enquirer publisher into the usual Trumpian shreds is to be found.
“It’s that silence and discipline that makes me wonder just how damaging Trump’s relationship with Pecker will be to the jury. David has stories to tell, and he’s telling them under oath.
“Trump’s continued silence on Pecker tells you that Trump intuitively understands that for millions of voters paying attention to this story that Pecker’s testimony is new information. It may seem like old news inside the political bubble, but for most people, it isn’t.”
This trial is definitely becoming the education vehicle for Americans to get an unvarnished look at the vileness, the depravity, the lifelong criminality of the fraud named Donald Trump. The case many thought was a “nothingburger” has suddenly become a “BigSomethingBurger.”
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The best idea I’ve heard for a way to control trump’s behavior was presented by a judge on MSNBC, I think on Chris Hayes show on Tuesday. She said she’d impose jail time, but stay its execution until the end of the trial. Initially it would be one day, but additional days could be added at the judge’s discretion over the course of the trial. The judge would announce the final tally at the end of the trial, not before, leaving trump to wonder which behaviors added to the tally and which he might get away with.
The Nazi coup trial in 1939 was declared a mistrial for the same behavior by the US Congresmen and Senator defendants. Instead of a retrial, the Truman Justice department declined and Truman had all records put away in the National Archive so the country could "Heal" after the war ended. That behavior worked then and looks like it will work again.Those Nazis did not just vanish. They lived long enough for their projeny and "community" to be well trained to pull it off next time.
Next time is NOW.