'Put Donald Trump in Rikers?': Watergate attorney frustrated by Trump judge's lack of options
During an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," former Watergate prosecutor John Sale expressed his frustration with Donald Trump's attacks on the judge overseeing the E. Jean Caroll rape and defamation trial and was appalled that nothing seems to be done to rein him in.
Speaking with host Joe Scarborough after it was reported that Trump attorney Joe Tacopina requested a mistrial early Monday morning, Sale lamented about the danger that would come with Trump being held in contempt.
"You don't trash the judge, you don't trash the trials, you don't question the integrity of the court – you'll get sanctioned by the court and, this is what I keep waiting for, John, the court will issue a gag order," host Scarborough complained. "Why won't any of these courts do this?"
"You raise a very good question," the attorney replied. "The reason is that: how can you enforce a contempt order? You issue a gag order and former president Trump is just going to thumb his nose at it. I think that'll just energize him."
"What does a judge do?" he elaborated. "I mean, you issue a gag order, and how do you enforce it? If it was against anyone else, you, me or anybody, it would ultimately be through a contempt. Well, what are you going to do? Are you going to put Donald Trump in Rikers Island, together with his secret service agents? Are you going to fine him? If you fine him, he'll be more of a martyr. The PAC he has will pay the fine, and he'll raise more money as a result of that."
"I think the real question is: what do you do about it, and how do you stop him?" he continued. "You know, when I was listening to you earlier, Joe, you were talking about the path he is going down; he's going to lose in 2024. I'm concerned not about 2024, I'm concerned about his social media posts, 'death and destruction,' 'suspend the constitution.' We have to do something. We have to speak up against that, not in 2024, now. Otherwise, we're going to have riots in the streets. we're going to have things like we just saw in New Hampshire."
"We all, Democrat, Republican, progressive, conservative, we all have to denounce the violence," he insisted. "We have to denounce the calls for attacking the victim. I don't understand why that's not happening."
Watch the segment below or at this link.
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