The New York Supreme Court of appeals has upheld the gag order that Justice Juan Merchan issued in the Donald J. Trump election interference (“hush money”) trial.
We find that Justice Merchan properly weighed petitioner’s First Amendment Rights against the court’s historical commitment to ensuring the fair administration of justice in criminal cases, and the right of persons related or tangentially related to the criminal proceedings from being free from threats, intimidation, harassment, and harm.
As Trump approached the courtroom on Tuesday, a reporter shouted: “Mr. Trump, are you directing conservatives to speak on your behalf”?
Trump responded: “I do have a lot of surrogates, and they are … speaking very beautifully and they come from all from all over Washington and they’re highly respected, and they think this is the greatest scam they’ve ever seen.”
A “surrogate” speaks for, and is under the direction, of another person.
surrogate: “one appointed to act in place of another” (Merriam-Webster) and “used to describe a person or thing that takes the place of, or is used instead of, someone or something else” (Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries).
As part of the gag order, Merchan prohibited Trump from “directing others to make public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses” or “family members of any counsel or staff member” as well as causing “others to materially interfere with counsel’s or staff’s work in this criminal case (emphasis added).”
Who are the surrogates?
On Monday Republican Senators JD Vance (OH) and Tommy Tuberville (AL) joined Trump in the courtroom. They claimed the trial was a “sham,” as Trump has repeatedly asserted without merit.
Afterwards on Newsmax, Tuberville said he was in New York to “overcome the gag order.” He called on “more senators and congressmen [to] go up and represent him, and go out and overcome this gag order.”
When asked if he was in New York “to go against the gag order and intimidate witnesses because Trump can’t,” Tuberville replied: “Yes, sir.”
On Tuesday, Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL), Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy spoke with media outside of Manhatten Criminal Court (photo below). Donalds attacked Merchan’s daughter, using the same words and phrases Trump has used.
Donalds going after the judge’s daughter pic.twitter.com/ayDVO4oUln
— Acyn (@Acyn) May 14, 2024
In addition, House Speaker Mike Johnson, a man second-in-succession to the presidency, joined the chorus of possible vice presidential nominees.
Johnson called the New York State prosecution “a sham of a trial” (using the same pejorative as Vance and Ramaswamy).
Johnson furthermore asserted the trial is “all about politics” even though a grand jury of citizens indicted Trump more than a year ago.
The @AP FTW! "It was a remarkable moment in modern American politics: The House speaker turning his Republican Party against the federal and state legal systems that are foundational to the U.S. government and a cornerstone of democracy." https://t.co/5CHZhcewcF
— Dan Froomkin (PressWatchers.org) (@froomkin) May 14, 2024
Johnson also attacked prosecution witness Michael Cohen: “This is a man who is clearly on a mission for personal revenge.”
Evidence for coordination is circumstantial, and Trump is a veteran at directing people to do stuff with indirect direction.
However, here’s New York Magazine contributing editor Andrew Rice on peeking over Trump’s shoulder in court:
I was sitting close enough that I could actually look over Trump’s shoulder and see what he was reading. At one point he was actually reading the quotes that these individuals were– and going through and making notations with a pen on the paper… While testimony was going on. While Michael Cohen was testifying against him, he was actually going and going through and annotating and editing the quotes that these people were going to say.
Wednesday is an off day for the Trump trial, so that Judge Merchan can handle other cases.
What will be the prosecutions response on Thursday?
Updated: 8:20 pm Pacific
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Known for gnawing at complex questions like a terrier with a bone. Digital evangelist, writer, teacher. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles. @kegill (Twitter and Mastodon.social); wiredpen.com