Judge snaps at Trump's lawyers over out-of-the-blue misconduct accusations
March 25, 2024
In what CNN anchor Jim Acosta later called, "Not a good sign for the defense," Judge Juan Merchan raised his voice and scolded Donald Trump's lawyer for making unfounded allegations against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office.
Reporting from outside the courthouse on a chilly Monday, CNN Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent Paula Reid read from texts received from inside the courtroom where cameras are not allowed.
According to Reid, Merchan strenuously pushed back at attorneys representing the former president in the hush money trial related to paying off adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.
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"We're getting live updates from inside the courtroom and it's actually getting quite testy in there where the judge has just raised his voice for the first time as he is pressing Trump's legal team about what is a pretty extraordinary allegation that they are making against the district attorney's office," CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins prompted Reid.
"That's right," she replied. "They have accused the district attorney's office of professional misconduct, prosecutorial misconduct. They've even suggested that they should be sanctioned. The judge said, look, that's a quote, 'Incredibly serious, unbelievably serious accusation. Not only are you accusing the prosecutor's office of misconduct but you are also trying to make me, the judge, complicit in it.'"
"And he pressed the Trump legal team to come up with some case law, some specifics to support this allegation because the reason we're here today for this hearing and on the first day of the trial, is that federal prosecutors handed over hundreds of thousands, excuse me, 100,000 documents," Reid elaborated.
"So the judge here is pressing the Trump attorneys on why you can accuse the Manhattan district attorney's office of prosecutorial misconduct if it's because the Justice Department didn't hand something over," she continued.
"Now, the Trump attorneys argued that the district attorney's office should have pushed for these documents themselves. They should have asked for these specific civic materials and they're having a pretty intense exchange now with the judge," she reported.
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