Former President Trump said Friday he would be “very proud” to go to prison for violating his gag order imposed by a New York judge in his financial hush case.
“If anything is mentioned against certain people, and you know who they are, certain people, anything is mentioned, he wants to put me in jail,” Trump said after court adjourned.
“And that could happen one day,” he added. “And I would be very proud to go to prison under our Constitution. Because what he’s doing is very unconstitutional.”
Judge Juan Merchan on Monday found that Trump had violated a gag order for the tenth time and ordered him to pay $1,000 for attacking jurors in his criminal gag trial, just days after the judge ruled on a previous set of violations. of silence order.
Merchan warned Trump that future violations could be punishable by prison.
Merchan told Trump that “the last thing I want to do is put him in prison,” but “at the end of the day, I have a job to do.”
The gag order prohibits Trump from attacking witnesses, jurors, prosecutors, court staff and the judge’s family. That doesn’t stop him from going after the judge or Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D), something Trump does almost daily.
Trump has criticized the restrictions, saying they violate his First Amendment rights to respond to political attacks, something he should have the right to do as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee in the November election.
On Friday, he complained that the gag order restricts what he can say, but that others, like his former lawyer and key witness Michael Cohen, face no limits.
But Merchan on Friday instructed Manhattan prosecutors to inform Cohen, their star witness, to stop speaking publicly about the case as his testimony approaches.
Trump’s lawyers have repeatedly criticized Cohen’s public attacks on Trump, given that the former president’s ability to respond is limited under the terms of his gag order. Todd Blanche, Trump’s lawyer, called for Cohen to be banned from speaking “in the same way that President Trump is” restricted.
“I will instruct the people to inform Mr. Cohen that the judge is asking him to refrain from making further statements regarding this case,” Merchan said from the courtroom.
Trump responded to this action:
“There’s no gag order for Michael Cohen. What the judge did was incredible, actually. It was incredible. Everyone can say whatever they want. But I’m not allowed to say anything about anyone. It’s a shame.
“What he did just now was a joke. It’s a shame.”
Zach Schonfeld contributed.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
