Gag Order Violation: Trump Edited "Surrogates" Speeches
New York Magazine's Andrew Rice saw Trump editing their speeches during Cohen's testimony
There’s no gag order on Vivek Ramaswamy or Mike Johnson or JD Vance, but there is one on Donald Trump—and he hates it.
So yesterday, this Lap Dog Group descended on the criminal courts building in Manhattan, and all gave what was essentially the same speech: they attacked the case and particularly Judge Juan Merchan’s daughter, Loren Merchan, claiming she is making money off of Trump’s hush-money case. Merchan the Younger is president and partner of Authentic Campaigns, a progressive political consulting firm. Trump has been slandering the younger Merchan for months, trying to create a fictive case for conspiracy between father and daughter as an 0excuse to claim reasonable doubt, create a case for mistrial, or reverse a conviction on appeal.
But gagged by Merchan the Elder, Trump assembled his “Surrogates” to speak for him outside the courtroom on the day that his lawyers launched a flop of a cross-examination of Michael Cohen and stuffed the gallery with high-level supporters.
However, whatever lawyer advised Trump that carrying on a conspiracy to violate his gag order was legal gave him bad advice. And his arrogance may have done him in. For while Cohen was testifying, Trump—infamous for micromanaging everything—was editing the speeches that the Surrogates would give outside.
From Dean Obeidallah:
"MSNBC Guest Says He Spotted Trump ‘Editing’ Speeches Allies Made Outside the Courtroom." This is why all GOP surrogates hit same point. The speeches were "Directed" by Trump in violation of gag order. Trump is making a mockery of the justice system. Judge has to stop it!
What????
From Threads:
New York Magazine contributing editor Andrew Rice claimed on Tuesday that he spotted former President Donald Trump “editing” and “making notations” to the speeches his allies then made outside of the courtroom during his hush money trial in New York.
On MSNBC, host Alex Wagner played several clips of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), and Vivek Ramaswamy hitting the same punchlines in speeches delivered outside the courthouse. When asked about specifics, Rice said:
In court yesterday, actually, 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 … and going through and making notations with a pen on the paper.
MSNBC host Chris Hayes asked Rice if Trump was doing this before or after the speeches were made. Rice replied, “While testimony was going on. While Michael Cohen was testifying against him, he was actually going … through and annotating and editing the quotes that these people were going to say.”
And that is conspiracy to violate the gag order. Now we’ll have to see if Judge Merchan will charge Trump with the violation and Johnson, Vance and Ramaswamy with conspiracy.
And in addition to Rice’s real-time observation, what may sink Trump is his admission on camera that the speech makers were acting on his behalf—and bragging that he has "a lot of surrogates and they are speaking very beautifully."
And the claim that surrogates can say what Trump can’t is bogus. And what makes it bogus is Trump’s instigation of the speeches. And that’s because of the way in which Merchan wrote the gag order. As reports Salon:
Joyce Alene, a former U.S. attorney under President Barack Obama, posted on X: “The gag order prohibits Trump from making comments about jurors/witnesses and also from causing others to make them.”
So what we witnessed yesterday was Trump’s surrogates violating his gag order at his direction with scripts he dictated and, in his arrogance, edited while sitting in court in front of an editor of a major national magazine.
What an idiot. This is not a man with enough intelligence to handle America’s nuclear football.
It’s Judge Merchan’s move now. Let’s hope me makes a very, very strong one.
I would like all of the lapdogs dressed in blue with red or striped ties charged with a hefty fine for being the Trump mouthpieces. Its outrageous. Unpatriotic. Un-American if not treasonous to support the man responsible for Jan. 6, much less payments to porn stars and so much more.
WoW - DJT just can’t control himself is surrounded by “yes people”. His “capo’s”. They aren’t covered. If Donnie is punished for violating the “gag order” they can step in for him. DJT may want to consider the IQ of his crew. Tubstub openly stating that he was there to violate the “gag order” may have been a bit of a red flag for the judge.