After Trump claimed outside of court yesterday that the gag order prohibited him from testifying Judge Merchan corrected Trump from the bench.
Norm Eisen posted:
BREAKING: Judge corrects Trump for lying outside court yesterday
Trump said gag order prevented him from testifying
Judge: you have an absolute right to testify at trial or not & gag order has nothing to do with it
Merchan is not tolerating Trump's disinfo campaign!
— Norm Eisen (#TryingTrump out now!) (@NormEisen) May 3, 2024
CNN’s Jim Acosta also discussed it:
.@Acosta reports on Judge Merchan correcting Trump's lie that he is not allowed to testify, "The judge just a few moments ago said, no, you do have the right to testify. The gag order has nothing to do with it." pic.twitter.com/k59NJiPM4T
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) May 3, 2024
As I wrote yesterday, in The Daily, there is nothing in the gag order that prevents Trump from testifying. Donald Trump continues to harbor the delusion that because he is a presidential candidate, he is allowed to jury tamper, witness tamper, and use his platform to attack members of the court. This is not true. The gag order imposed on Trump is narrow and only limits what he can say about witnesses, jurors, and members of the court.
Trump can testify anytime that he wants.
The issue is that the trial is going badly for Trump, and he does not want to testify, so he is looking for a way out, while still trying to get his fans to engage with this trial.
Judge Merchan is showing that he is not going to tolerate lies and misinformation. The Judge’s action today also is a statement that he will not allow this trial to be twisted and used as a campaign platform for Donald Trump.
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