Judge warns Trump to behave properly during trial

For months, Donald Trump's lawyers approached his legal briefs with performative aggression and a pugilistic style, peppering judges with mountains of motions, many of which were filled with far-fetched assertions. And the former president himself has often demonstrated a disruptive presence at the courthouse and on social media, attacking witnesses, prosecutors and even judges' relatives.

Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing Trump's upcoming secret trial in Manhattan, made clear this week that he has none of it.

After firing a few warning shots at Team Trump's bow, Merchan imposed a silence order on the former president on Tuesday, barring him from attacking witnesses, jurors or prosecutors in the case.

Under the order, Trump cannot make, or direct others to make, statements about the role of witnesses in the case. He is also prohibited from making comments about prosecutors, court staff and their relatives if he intends to interfere with their work on the case, or about jurors in his case.

Merchan cited threatening, inflammatory and disparaging statements Trump has made about grand jurors, prosecutors and others. To enforce such an order, judges typically impose fines and, in extraordinary circumstances, may send someone to prison.

The judge also ordered Todd Blanche, Trump's combative lawyer, and his partners in the case to stop seeking to delay the trial by filing additional motions without first seeking permission, warning that he could have consequences.

The court hopes that the line between zealous advocacy and willful disregard of its orders will not be crossed, he wrote.

Refusal of the judge

Merchants' dissatisfaction with Trump's legal team has been building throughout the week. On Monday, he subjected Blanche to scathing questions during a hearing to determine whether to delay the trial beyond the April 15 start date, after thousands of new pages of documents were belatedly released by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York.

Blanche and her partners had accused the prosecution of gross misconduct, complaining that Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, was responsible for the late disclosure. Trump's lawyers asked Merchan to further delay the trial to allow time to review the documents.

But the judge firmly rejected Blanche's allegations, saying the attacks on Bragg were incredibly serious, incredibly serious, but completely unsupported by the facts. He then asked why Trump's legal team waited so long to complain about the documents they requested.

At one point, Merchan even seemed to suggest that Blanche had better not raise such frivolous questions, asking how long he had been a federal prosecutor. Later, the judge expressed surprise that he and Blanche could read the same set of facts, or the same legal opinion, and come away with completely different interpretations.

At the end of Monday's hearing, Merchan rejected Blanche's accusations and rejected her request to delay the trial. Trump, sitting at the defense table, shook his head silently.

Courtroom Stunts

Trump has now attended several proceedings related to his civil and criminal trials and disrupted some of them.

When he showed up in January at a trial in Manhattan to determine how much money he should pay writer E. Jean Carroll, he made noises of disgust and mumbled so loudly that the judge, Lewis Kaplan , scolded him.

During closing arguments by Carroll's attorney, Trump went so far as to abruptly stand up and leave the courtroom. At another point, when the jury was not present, Kaplan threatened to remove Trump from the room.

I understand that you are probably very anxious for me to do this, the judge said.

Trump responded, I would love that.

Some of Trump's own advisers privately admitted that stunts like these likely made things worse for him during that trial, which ended with an $83.3 million judgment.

With such a tally, the secret trial, which could last up to six weeks, will be the next and toughest test yet of Trump's ability to push back against the justice system while maintaining some semblance of decorum in the room audience.

Outside the courtroom, Trump was quick to test the limits of Mercan's silence order. A day after the order was imposed, he boosted a social media account he said belonged to the judge's daughter, which featured a photo of Trump behind bars.

The image, Trump complained on his own social media account, made it completely impossible for me to get a fair trial. He demanded that Merchan recuse himself from the case.

Ultimately, court officials said the account purporting to belong to Mercans' daughter was a fake.

Your questions

We ask readers what they would like to know about the Trump cases: the charges, the proceedings, the important players, or anything else. You can send us your question by filling out this form.

Why does the DOJ want to exclude broadcasting of the federal election trial? Lynne Riley, Delaware

Alan: In short, because the federal courts have long had a national rule against broadcasting trials live on television and the Department of Justice is basically required to follow it. There is a chance, albeit small, that the trial will be broadcast via a live audio stream. There would be at least one precedent for this: The Supreme Court and the federal appeals court in Washington allow live audio of their hearings.

How Trump paid $100 million in legal fees

Since leaving office in 2021, Trump has spent more than $100 million on attorneys' fees and other costs aimed at delaying criminal investigations, indictments and trials, according to a study of federal records. Times.

As his first trial neared, Trump's legal costs continued to rise. It spent at least $9.7 million in January and February. Here's a look at how donations help pay Trump's legal bills.

Sources 1/ https://Google.com/ 2/ https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/28/us/politics/trump-trial-hush-money-judge-merchan.html The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article

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