Former President Donald Trump has said that he will testify at his upcoming trial in New York, which begins on Monday. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has accused Trump of falsifying business records to cover up payments his lawyer Michael Cohen made to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who alleged she had a sexual encounter with Trump before the 2016 presidential election. Trump has denied the encounter with Daniels.
Prior to the trial, Judge Juan Merchan expanded a gag order on Trump to curtail “inflammatory” speech but the presumptive GOP presidential nominee continues to disparage the two key witnesses (Cohen and Daniels) on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Whether the court acknowledges or punishes Trump for potentially violating the gag order — by attacking the credibility of the witnesses — remains to be seen.
Former US Attorney Joyce Vance responded to Trump’s latest post: “There is a gag order that prohibits Trump from making public statements about witnesses concerning their participation at trial. Questioning their credibility would seem to cross that line.”
When does enough become enough and the petulant man child gets a time out in lockup for his bad behavior? https://t.co/B8zRQu7n5U
— Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) April 13, 2024
Cohen replied, too: “When does enough become enough and the petulant man child gets a time out in lockup for his bad behavior?”
Note: Trump also disparaged witness Mark Pomerantz, the Harvard Law-trained lawyer who assisted with the Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation into the finances of Trump from February 2021 to April 2022.
Pomerantz, who worked pro bono with then-District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr., wrote a book about his involvement in the Trump investigation, People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account, to the dismay of Vance’s successor, D.A. Bragg, who disapproved of the release of the book in 2023, during Bragg’s ongoing investigation of Trump.