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“So that’s not true? That’s not true?”
The judge accountable for Donald J. Trump’s Manhattan prison trial had simply reduce off the previous president’s lawyer, Todd Blanche. Mr. Blanche had been within the midst of defending a social media publish wherein his shopper wrote {that a} assertion that had been public for years “WAS JUST FOUND!”
Mr. Blanche had already acknowledged in the course of the Tuesday listening to that Mr. Trump’s publish was false. But the judge, Juan M. Merchan, wasn’t happy.
“I want to know,” Justice Merchan stated, obtrusive down on the lawyer from the bench, “what I’m coping with.”
The query of what’s true — or at the least what may be confirmed — is on the coronary heart of any trial. But this specific defendant, accused by the Manhattan district lawyer’s workplace of falsifying enterprise information to hide a intercourse scandal, has spent 5 many years spewing hundreds and hundreds of phrases, typically contradicting himself inside minutes, typically inside the similar breath, with little concern for the results of what he stated.
Mr. Trump has handled his personal phrases as disposable commodities, meant for single use, and never essentially indicative of any deeply held beliefs. And his tendency to pile phrases on prime of each other has usually labored to his profit, amusing or participating his supporters — typically spurring threats and even violence — whereas distracting, enraging or simply plain disorienting his critics and adversaries.
If Mr. Blanche appeared unconcerned on the listening to that he was telling a prison judge that his shopper had stated one thing false, it might have been just because the routine has turn out to be so acquainted.
Mr. Trump’s career-long behavior of a ready-fire-aim stream of consciousness — on social media, on tv, to newspaper reporters, to rally attendees — can now be held in opposition to him by prosecutors and a judge who has real energy over him.
Prosecutors have requested the judge to carry the previous president in prison contempt for violating a gag order that bars him from attacking witnesses, which they argued was vital on condition that his earlier assaults had “resulted in credible threats of violence, harassment, and intimidation.” Justice Merchan’s questioning of the reality of what Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social was certainly one of a number of episodes which have introduced into stark aid how speaking continuously in public — which made Mr. Trump a tabloid fixture after which a reality-television star — has been working in opposition to him these days.
Eventually, the case might threaten not solely Mr. Trump’s freedom but in addition the central tenets of a lifelong ethos ever-present within the former president’s patter: a handy disregard for the reality, the blunt denial of something damaging and a cussed insistence that his adversaries are at all times performing in dangerous religion.
The penalties thus far have been minimal. Prosecutors informed the judge on the contempt listening to Tuesday that for now, they weren’t looking for jail time for feedback that largely focused two key witnesses: Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s former fixer and private lawyer, and Ms. Daniels, the porn star who claimed to have had an affair with Mr. Trump and whom Mr. Cohen paid $130,000 to maintain silent weeks earlier than the 2016 election.
Mr. Trump is much less moved by threats of being fined. Still, when he confronted an analogous punishment in a civil fraud trial late final 12 months, he slowed his assaults on a courtroom official after the penalties mounted.
Mr. Trump defined his mentality succinctly whereas working for president in 2016. When the Senate Republican chief, Mitch McConnell, requested him why he responded to each single slight, the candidate replied, “I’ve to defend myself.”
Mr. Trump’s phrases — which helped ship him to the White House by dozens of rallies and interviews — usually labored in opposition to him as soon as he was there. In July 2016, his public name to Russia to “discover” Hillary Clinton’s deleted emails from her non-public server simply after he formally grew to become the Republican nominee grew to become a chunk of the investigation into whether or not his marketing campaign had conspired with Russians to assist elect him.
Mr. Trump was additionally investigated for obstruction of justice as a part of the broader Russian interference investigation by the particular counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. One of these attainable acts of obstruction was a collection of tweets in April 2018 wherein he declared Mr. Cohen, his private lawyer who was beneath investigation, would by no means flip on him. (Mr. Cohen finally did so; he’s anticipated to be a key witness at Mr. Trump’s prison trial, and prosecutors have instructed they could enter these tweets into proof.)
As a sitting president, Mr. Trump was shielded from prosecution; he confronted solely a hefty report by Mr. Mueller.
Those protections fell away when he misplaced the presidency and left the White House. But Mr. Trump has not modified his method to public life, and seems fairly unlikely to ever achieve this.
Mr. Trump has lengthy conflated authorized issues with public-relations issues, treating the authorized variety as simply spun away with statements or deflection.
Since the fees have been unveiled in April 2023 by the district lawyer, Alvin L. Bragg, Mr. Trump and his advisers have braided collectively authorized and political responses. They efficiently referred to as on Republicans to defend the previous president and baselessly maintained that Mr. Bragg, a Democrat in an overwhelmingly Democratic county, was performing on orders from Mr. Trump’s political opponent President Biden.
They have additionally tried to make use of political arguments to justify Mr. Trump’s actions within the case. During the gag-order listening to on Tuesday, Mr. Blanche sought to excuse a group of Mr. Trump’s verbal assaults on Mr. Cohen and Ms. Daniels. He argued that, in attacking them, the previous president had been responding to political assaults by his adversaries — who simply occur to be witnesses within the case.
The judge wasn’t shopping for it. He informed Mr. Blanche that he was planning to ask, in each instance, “What exactly is it that your shopper is responding to?” When Mr. Blanche didn’t have the requested info at hand, Justice Merchan reminded him of the aim of the listening to.
“I’m going to resolve whether or not your shopper is in contempt or not,” he stated, including, “I hold asking you again and again for a selected instance, and I’m not getting a solution.”
Justice Merchan has but to concern a ruling on whether or not to seek out Mr. Trump in contempt. While prosecutors have argued that Mr. Trump is “angling” to be arrested, some individuals near Mr. Trump insist privately that, for all his bravado, he desperately needs to keep away from jail.
Nonetheless, Mr. Trump has continued apace with feedback that take a look at the bounds of what he can say. Two days after the listening to, prosecutors supplied 4 new situations wherein they stated he had violated the gag order.
Two have been throughout political interviews. One was within the hallway, proper outdoors Justice Merchan’s courtroom, the place cameras are stationed to seize Mr. Trump talking earlier than and after courtroom periods. There, Mr. Trump hammered at Mr. Cohen’s credibility as soon as once more.
In response, Justice Merchan set a brand new listening to for this week wherein, as soon as once more, the previous president’s statements can be within the highlight: dissected, thought-about and, finally, judged.
