Former Judge John E. Jones said Judge Juan Merchan should not impose a gag order on former President Donald Trump’s allies, despite two MSNBC hosts nudging him to say so.
Trump is under a gag order that bars him from making statements about witnesses, prosecutors other than the district attorney, court staff and jurors, as well as family members of the staff, district attorney or judge. Republican Florida Sen. Rick Scott attacked some of the people who Trump is barred from criticizing outside of the court where Trump’s trial is being held, with Jones telling hosts Chris Jansing and Andrea Mitchell that Merchan should not impose the gag order on his surrogates.
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“Let me start with what we just heard from Rick Scott,” Jansing said. “We know that Donald Trump is under a gag order and yet you have someone close to him, who would like to be potentially his vice presidential running mate, saying the judge’s daughter is a political operative who raises money for Democrats, the lead prosecutor’s wife a significant for Democrats. What is your reaction to that and is there anything Judge Merchan can or should do about people who are close to Donald Trump saying things maybe he can’t?”
“I don’t think so, Chris,” Jones said. “I think that’s so much outside noise to Judge Merchan. You know, when I was on the bench and I had a controversial case, I used to joke that I thought my name was changed to Bush-appointed judge because you get typecast in a certain way. I don’t find that as anything that Merchan is going to pay particular attention to. And quite honestly, you know, it sort of flies in the face of what we can see or hear with our own eyes in terms of the way the trial is being conducted.”
Merchan has held Trump in contempt for ten gag order violations, fining him $1,000 for each and warning additional violations could lead to incarceration.
“He hasn’t had validators there for him, but doesn’t the gag order also say that people close to Trump, that it’s a violation for other people on his behalf to demean family of the court, anyone besides the judge and the prosecutors?” Mitchell followed up.
“Well, first of all, the people would have to act and the person of the district attorney, the prosecutors to try to call him on that,” Jones said. “And then the problem becomes creating a nexus between the speaker and Donald Trump. You know, did he do it — did Scott volunteer it or was he goaded into doing it by Trump? It’s probably an area that Merchan and the prosecution doesn’t want to wade into, and, again, I think Merchan has done a great job thus far managing the case, and he’s tried to avoid pretty successfully the kind of side shows that can take a trial off track, and that’s what this would be.”
Merchan’s rulings have often appeared to be favorable to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg while impeding Trump’s defense during the trial, with the judge granting many requests by prosecutors while frequently rejecting requests by the defense.
