Attorney for Donald Trump Todd Blanche argued this morning that his client was being very careful to comply with the gag order issued by the judge preventing Trump from attacking and/or intimidating jurors and/or witnesses. (Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg asserts that Trump has violated the gag order ten times since its issuance.)
Judge Juan Merchan replied that Blanche, in contending dubiously that Trump has taken great care with his statements since being gagged, was “losing all credibility” with the court.
Blanche: “President Trump is being very careful to comply” with the gag order.
Merchan, sharply: “Mr. Blanche, you are losing all credibility.”
— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) April 23, 2024
Yet the prosecution also offered a recurring instance where they say Trump is being exceptionally careful with his social media posts — from a legal standpoint. Trump frequently signs off on his posts with “MAGA!” — an acronym for his Make America Great Again political movement.
Arguing for the prosecution, assistant DA Christopher Conroy contends that the “MAGA!” Trump commonly places as a coda in his messages isn’t simply a rallying cry. Trump, he claims, inserts it in hopes that it will function as a legal protection.
In the same way he characterizes the trials he faces as “election interference,” Trump wants each of his social media posts to be considered political speech, essentially campaign speech, which his lawyers will contend have added protections.
Conroy says, as political pundit Ron Filipkowski reports, that Trump is putting “MAGA!” at the end of posts “so he can argue that the post was being made for political purposes so it is protected by the First Amendment.”
Conroy objects to the technique’s effectiveness from a legal standpoint, saying that “throwing MAGA into a post doesn’t make it political – it may make it more ominous.”