Donald Trump’s disparaging rhetoric against his Washington D.C. jury pool may not be actionable but is “incredibly damaging” to the former president, a legal expert said Friday.
CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen during an appearance on CNN’s “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer” said Trump’s characterization of Washington D.C. in a post on his Truth Social website could get him into trouble as his trial unfolds.
Eisen’s comments follow the magistrate judge presiding over Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 election conspiracy case during Thursday’s arraignment admonishing the former president not to commit any crimes while he is awaiting trial, specifically telling Trump that it is a crime to "influence a juror or try to threaten or bribe a witness or retaliate against anyone" connected to the case, which Trump told the judge he understood.
Trump in an all-caps rant said “CONSIDERING THE FACT THAT I HAD TO FLY TO A FILTHY, DIRTY, FALLING APART, & VERY UNSAFE WASHINGTON, D.C., TODAY, & THAT I WAS THEN ARRESTED BY MY POLITICAL OPPONENT, WHO IS LOSING BADLY TO ME IN THE POLLS, CROOKED JOE BIDEN, IT WAS A VERY GOOD DAY!”
Said Eisen: “We've seen a stream of these disparaging comments attacking judges, attacking prosecutors. He went a little too far yesterday, in my opinion, when he attacked the potential jury pool in the District of Columbia when he talked about the filth and decay in D.C.”
“These are the people who live in the District of Columbia, who are going to be sitting on a jury involving Donald Trump…Is it actionable? We're not there yet. Is it incredibly damaging to him? Yes, it is. And I will say there's an ambiguity to that Truth Social posting. It could, any judge or prosecutor who looks at that thinks ‘gee, is he insinuating harm?"
“So it shortens his runway, should he cross the line intentionally or otherwise? I think that will be tested in these many trials in the pre-trial period ahead.”
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