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It’s been well documented that Trump is no fan of anyone or anything involving the Stormy Daniels hush money case against him. Yet this latest gag order imposed by Judge Merchan has more than a whiff of hypocrisy attached to it.
The original gag order was so Trump wouldn’t use speeches or social media to go after the Matthew Colangelo the lead prosecutor, Stormy Daniels, Michael Cohen, or other attorneys and staff directly involved in the case. The original order did not restrict Trump from going after Judge Merchan nor District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
But now there’s a new gag order in effect. One the judge imposed late yesterday. You can read the four-page ruling here.
You see, now Trump is not allowed to criticize ANYONE who is even remotely on the periphery of this case. As in Judge Merchan’s daughter.
Judge Juan Merchan issued a ruling Monday night to expand the former president’s gag order to limit his attacks against Merchan’s daughter, Loren, who is a Democratic political consultant.
“This pattern of attacking family members of presiding jurists and attorneys assigned to his cases serves no legitimate purpose,” Merchan wrote in his ruling. “It merely injects fear in those assigned or called to participate in the proceedings, that not only they, but their family members as well, are ‘fair game’ for Defendant’s vitriol.”
Needless to say, the media is loving this and will dine on it as well as Trump’s reaction(s) for the rest of the week and beyond.
There are several big problems with this gag order. One is that, while Trump is now prohibited from speaking out against those who are going after him, others involved in the case still have free rein. Michael Cohen is a prime example.
Hush-Money Delay Bid: Trump Says Manhattan Already Thinks He's Guilty and cites The Mea Culpa Podcast where I refer to #Trump as Donald von ShitsInPantz. Sounds like a solid legal argument (sarcasm) by his lawyers. #TeamCohen. Subscribe, rate and share! https://t.co/LWKSc2etoz
— Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) April 1, 2024
Cohen, who publicly thanked the judge for imposing the original gag order, has his entire X feed and podcasts revolving around Trump. Yet the judge obviously doesn’t care about Cohen’s rants, just Trump’s. See the hypocrisy here? Oh, but it gets better.
The judge didn’t likeTrump going after his daughter, especially last Wednesday with this Truth Social post.
Judge Juan Merchan, who is suffering from an acute case of Trump Derangement Syndrome (whose daughter represents Crooked Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Adam “Shifty” Schiff, and other Radical Liberals, has just posted a picture of me behind bars, her obvious goal, and makes it completely impossible for me to get a fair trial) has now issued another illegal, un-American, unConstitutional “order,” as he continues to try and take away my Rights. This Judge, by issuing a vicious “Gag Order,” is wrongfully attempting to deprive me of my First Amendment Right to speak out against the Weaponization of Law Enforcement, including the fact that Crooked Joe Biden, Merrick Garland, and their Hacks and Thugs are tracking and following me all across the Country, obsessively trying to persecute me, while everyone knows I have done nothing wrong!
The media is claiming that the X account is actually no longer Loren Merchan’s as she’d supposedly deleted that account. They are insisting that someone else is pretending to be her. REALLY?
The problem with this is that Loren Merchan is, as noted above, a Democrat operative whose company has made millions working for Adam Schiff, Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom, Joe Biden, and others.
https://twitter.com/julie_kelly2/status/1773770859129299207
As RedState points out, Loren herself has talked about conversations she and her father have had about Trump’s tweets. This was from 2019.
I’ve actually had a couple conversations with my dad recently where he’s kind of like ‘I hate that politicians use Twitter,’ and like ‘it’s so unprofessional’ and you know, ‘that’s not how a politician should behave themselves,’ and I explain that like yeah I think there are a lot of instances where it is not used in, like when our President [Trump] tweets anything that he thinks, and like that’s not what he should be using it for.
It’s quite fair to presume that Judge Merchan hasn’t changed his thinking and is definitely NOT operating objectively when it comes to this case. Furthermore, because the gag order only involves Trump, that also means that Loren’s company can continue to craft and send out emails fundraising off this case and, to the tune of $93 million raised and counting.
https://twitter.com/julie_kelly2/status/1774977142691914236
But no, there’s certainly nothing hypocritical about this at all. Nothing to see here.
Jonathan Turley, who firmly believes defendants have a constitutional right to criticize prosecutions against them, has some thoughts on this matter.
“But in this case, you have prosecutors pushing this trial right before an election, the judge is assisting in that, and then they want to gag the president from talking about the main issue in the election,” Turley continued. “Whether they like it or not, this election is likely to turn on this question of the weaponization of the legal system.”
As does Andy McCarthy.
“He’s got a First Amendment right to campaign and he’s got a right to make his defense and he may be right or wrong, but it is perfectly appropriate to make a defense this is a political prosecution against him and the judge is biased. He didn’t pick any member of the judge’s family out of the sky. He chose the one who is a Democratic political operative, which is undeniable even if the judge doesn’t want to talk about it.”
Whether anyone likes what Trump does or says or not, the law fare and the hypocrisy behind this gag order should be of concern to all.
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President Trump damn sure needs to appeal this, straight to SCOTUS if needed. As usual, the deep state leftists have it in for him, with zero respect for the Constitution.
It is more egregious than described. The judge has interjected his family members into the case itself. A huge conflict and violation of the judicial rules of ethics. He needs to be referred to judicial disciplinary board for ethics violations.
So you’re ok with conservative Supreme Court justices’ families being harassed, doxed, threatened etc.? Or is it only ok if the judge has family members that support Democrats? Last I checked, the judge’s ADULT DAUGHTER is a, get this, ADULT. As in she is perfectly capable of making her own decisions separate from her father. And she is also not presiding over the case the last time I checked. This whole thing reeks of a mob boss wanting free rein to say, “Nice daughter you’ve got there, be a shame if something happened to her.”
Because here’s the thing: what Trump is doing is stochastic terrorism. That “refers to political or media figures publicly demonizing a person or group in such a way that it inspires supporters of the figures to commit a violent act against the target of the speech.” And unlike what we normally think of with terrorism, “this is accomplished by using indirect, vague, or coded language that allows the instigator to plausibly disclaim responsibility for the resulting violence… A key element is the use of social media and other distributed forms of communications where the person who carries out the violence has no direct connection to the users of violent rhetoric.” (Wikipedia)
There is copious amounts of evidence that whenever Trump says something about a judge or case in particular, there is an uptick in threats perpetuated against the person or people. This was on full display when Trump warned that there would be “potential death and destruction” if he were charged by DA Alvin Bragg. Bragg’s office then found a threatening letter and white powder in its mailroom hours later.
Here are two articles detailing all of the connections and instances between Trump’s words and the actions of his followers that have occurred: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-election-judges-threats/
https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/blame-abc-news-finds-17-cases-invoking-trump/story?id=58912889
Threatening a judge’s family members is not “free speech.” In fact, the First Amendment doesn’t protect against threats of violence so the argument about appealing to the Supreme Court is utterly deranged and laughable. And Judge Merchan has not “interjected his family into the case.” (If anything Trump did that by bringing Merchan’s daughter up in the first place as a way of intimidating the judge and prejudicing potential jurors in his favor.) Threatening a judge or his or her family can also be a crime and can constitute obstruction of justice.
I get that you obviously love a mob boss or something but a gag order is not hypocritical or against the law, particularly when there is recent, startling history of threats and/or acts of violence against those whom Trump denigrates. The judge here is well within his rights to protect his family, potential jurors and witnesses from harm.
Oh, yes, I have pity for the poor “victim.” Who’s living a lavish lifestyle from the millions that she’s raking in from her father’s actions. (Just as much as I have for the BLM grifters in their California mansions.)
Question – did ANY of the SCOTUS Justices, OR their families, benefit financially from their decision overturning Roe v. Wade?
I hear the sound of crickets…
Here’s what you’re missing in your tirade:
The behavior of the judge and his daughter can be easily used to prove that the judge is biased and should not be allowed to be part of this trial.
[…] IT’S ALL SHOW TRIALS AND DOUBLE STANDARDS: The Hypocrisy Behind Trump Gag Order. […]
As usual, showing up spouting talking points and using big words so you so you think you sound intelligent. and as usual, you’re wrong on pretty much everyhting… You carefully fail to mention that the judges daughter is a democratic operative, so far from being an uninvolved family member, she is just as valid a target as any other politician / lobbyist/ operative. but then again, you already knew that…
Try harder / be better next time…
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