Former President Donald Trump, who has been charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to alleged payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election, attended the first day of his criminal trial in a Manhattan courtroom.
The presumptive GOP nominee for president, who has pleaded not guilty, claims he is being persecuted by a “weaponized” Department of Justice. A grand jury — made up of U.S. citizens — voted to indict the former president in March 2023.
MAGA supporters including the adult sons of Trump are voicing outrage over standard criminal case procedures, including that a defendant in a criminal trial must attend every day of the trial or else face jail.
(Popular internet political commentator AngryStaffer points out below, in response to MAGA activist Laura Loomer’s outrage, that this is all how criminal trials work.)
Imagine wanting a defendant to be present for his trial.
THIS ONLY HAPPENS
..everywhere. It happens everywhere. pic.twitter.com/3giPSIghes
— Angry Staffer (@Angry_Staffer) April 15, 2024
Since the trial is expected to last six to eight weeks, Trump zealots including Jack Posobiec are enraged that Trump “will be arrested if he misses any day of the trial even for Barron’s graduation.” (Barron Trump, 18, is the only son of Trump and Melania Trump.) Donald Trump Jr. replied to Posobiec: “Pure evil.”
Judge Merchan said he received the request from Trump’s attorneys for the former president to miss the trial on May 17 so he could attend his son’s ceremony. Merchan said he could not rule yet — with the graduation date more than a month away — and that his decision would depend on whether the trial was running on schedule.
Judge Merchan is truly heartless in not letting a father attend his son’s graduation
— Eric Trump (@EricTrump) April 15, 2024
Eric Trump claimed: “Judge Merchan is truly heartless in not letting a father attend his son’s graduation.” Again, the judge has not yet decided.
The ‘Judge won’t let Trump go to Barron’s graduation’ canard is the new ‘Judge Engoron said Mar-a-Lago is worth $18 million.’
And they will repeat it over and over and over because that is the Joseph Goebbels playbook.
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 15, 2024