'Unheard of': Ex-prosecutor dumbfounded by Trump's crusade against law clerk

The attacks former President Donald Trump has inspired against the law clerk of Judge Arthur Engoron in the New York state civil fraud trial have no comparison in recent memory, argued former prosecutor Catherine Christian on MSNBC Wednesday.

This comes amid a new report from court security detailing an avalanche of death threats and abuse targeted at court staff involved in the Trump trial.

"You worked in New York City in the court system and still do," said anchor Chris Hayes. "This kind of thing directed a clerk at the court, it's one thing, right, if you run for district attorney and that, you're going to take some incoming, right? They are going to be saying nasty things about you. You may have to worry a little bit about security, but you know that when you're doing it. Not to say it's okay, but it's just a little bit of a different thing. A court clerk? Like, have you ever encountered a situation in the time that you worked in the New York City court system of that level of public harassment targeted at someone like that?"

"Unheard of," said Christian. "A judge's law clerk — I don't want to say that they're a plotted plant, but when you got to court as a lawyer, you don't deal with a law clerk. Sometimes, the judge will have the law clerk speak to the attorneys, have a settlement. But it's the judge that makes a decision. In this case, not just Donald Trump, to have a lawyer that has been attacking this law clerk is unprecedented. It's unheard of."

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"I am sorry, this is unacceptable. It's entirely unacceptable," said Hayes. "I am sorry, we cannot run a system like this. It cannot be the case that you can use the leverage of your platform to essentially, like, by other means, paying a targeted intimidation, upon a court. I feel like I am reading about some dystopian state where the rule of law has unraveled."

"It shows," agreed Christian. "This is proof, if you want proof that Donald Trump's words when he attacks someone has an effect of encouraging, threatening behavior ... this is proof. He puts her photo up, and he also linked to her personal Instagram on that on social media, and it just started, and it hasn't stopped."

Watch the video below or at the link.

Catherine Christian calls Trump threat to law clerk "unprecedented"www.youtube.com