'Shocker': Legal expert tears apart Trump team's latest gag order argument
May 10, 2024
Former President Donald Trump, and some people in his orbit, have taken to demanding to know why his former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen has not been subject to a gag order in the Manhattan criminal hush money case, whereas Trump has.
But it doesn't really work that way, legal expert Lisa Rubin explained to MSNBC's Joy Reid, in a panel alongside former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, for a couple of reasons.
"Judge [Juan] Merchan made that point when this was raised, saying, I don't have power over all of the United States," said Weissmann. "You are a defendant. That is why there is a gag order. And so that is the critical difference. Also, just to be clear, nothing about that gag order prevents Donald Trump from making any and all claims about Joseph Biden, his administration, talking about politics. He can even, and has, attacked the judge and the lead prosecutor, the D.A. So this idea that it's like, you can run for office and not engage in attacking jurors and witnesses. Shocker."
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"And apparently, the judge has asked Michael Cohen to refrain from doing interviews and talking," interjected Reid. "But again, he's not the one under the gag order. He already went to jail for this crime. They were actually in the crime together. That's a key point!"
"The other key difference is one of these people has a track record of threatening people in ways that really jeopardizes their safety and the other does not, or the other two do not, because the former president is talking both about Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels," said Rubin. "I'm not aware of any situation in which a person's life has been threatened as a result of something that Michael Cohen or Stormy Daniels has said publicly, but I'm very aware of people who have been indicted and arrested for making threats against people, including people who are and have administered Trump-represented cases. Tanya Chutkan, Letitia James, Judge Arthur Engoron, Fani Willis. Multiple people under arrest and indictment for making threats about those people, as a result of the defendant's own statements here."
In all, she concluded, "it's a combination of the fact the judge has jurisdiction when he's a criminal defendant, and also, he has a track record here that's worth taking note of."
Watch the video below or at the link here.
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