Ex-Trump attorney highlights what 'jumped out at him' in Trump's gag order

Donald Trump's former attorney was surprised when the New York judge who levied a gag order on the former president barring him from disparaging jurors, witnesses, and court staffers didn't include himself in the list of people Trump was forbidden from targeting.

"It did jump out at me that he kind of excluded himself," said Tim Parlatore during an appearance on CNN's "Laura Coates Live."

On Tuesday, Judge Juan Merchan put the limited gag order in on former President Donald Trump as the trial in his hush money case is set to begin on April 15 saying his documented statements were “threatening, inflammatory, denigrating” targeting various city and federal officials, court staff and “private individuals including grand jurors performing their civic duty."

Since then, Trump has unleashed angry tirades on his Truth Social platform to bash Merchan and also his daughter, Loren Merchan who has worked as a political consultant to both President Joe Biden's and Vice President Kamala Harris' campaigns in the past.

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Trump called Merchan's gag order “illegal, un-American, unConstitutional” accused Merchan of “wrongfully attempting to deprive me of my First Amendment Right to speak out against the Weaponization of Law Enforcement.”

Parlatore, who said he has argued many cases before the same judge in Trump's sights, was strategic about allowing attacks aimed at him to remain unimpeded.

"I've been in front of Judge Merchan plenty of times and I think that it kind of speaks to his own personality of how he doesn't want to put himself in the middle of it and say, 'He himself needs to be protected.' — he wants to protect the other people here," he said. "So it did jump out at me that he was excluded."

Unlike his former client Trump, who also is the presumptive Republican nominee running against incumbent President Joe Biden, he believes Merchan is a very level-headed jurist.

"I mean, he is he's a good judge," said Parlatore. "When I tried a case before him, he beat the hell out of me when the jury wasn't in the room."

But that was before the jury was returned to the courtroom.

He said, "as soon as the jury came in the room he put on a great show of letting the lawyers try the case and really let the jury decide the case based on the merits and didn't let them think what is the judge thinking one way or the other."

Parlatore believes that Merchan will take the same approach once Trump's criminal trial gets underway next month.