Judge tells Trump lawyer he is ‘losing all credibility’ in hush-money trial

New York: The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s criminal hush-money trial has warned Trump’s lawyer that he was “losing all credibility” in his arguments that the former president should not be punished for violating a gag order in the case.

Justice Juan Merchan said he would not immediately rule on prosecutors’ request to fine Trump $US10,000 ($15,400) for violating the order, which prevents him from criticising witnesses and others involved in the case.

Judge Juan M. Merchan.Credit: AP

At a hearing on Wednesday (AEST), Merchan told Todd Blanche that he had neither case law nor evidence to support his argument that Trump was not intimidating witnesses, but responding to political attacks.

“You’ve presented nothing,” Merchan said. “I’ve asked you eight or nine times, show me the exact post he was responding to. You’ve not even been able to do that once.

“I have to tell you right now, you’re losing all credibility with the court,” the judge added.

After the session, Trump repeated his claim that the gag order violated his constitutional free speech rights.

Former US president Donald Trump.Credit: AP

“This is a kangaroo court and the judge should recuse himself!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

The judge’s gag order prevents Trump from publicly criticising witnesses, court officials and their relatives.

New York prosecutor Christopher Conroy said Trump had run afoul of the order, pointing to an April 10 Truth Social post that called porn star Stormy Daniels and Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen “sleazebags”. Both are expected to testify in the first criminal trial of a former US president.

Conroy said other posts had led to media coverage that prompted a juror last week to withdraw over privacy concerns.

Former US president Donald Trump.Credit: AP

“He knows what he’s not allowed to do and he does it anyway,” Conroy said of Trump. “His disobedience of the order is willful. It’s intentional.”

The $US10,000 fine sought by Conroy would be a relatively small penalty for Trump, who has posted $US266.6 million in bonds as he appeals civil judgments in two other cases.

Conroy said he was not at this point asking Merchan to send Trump to jail for up to 30 days, as New York law allows.

“The defendant seems to be angling for that,” Conroy said.

Blanche said Trump’s posts were responses to political attacks by Cohen and not related to his former lawyer’s expected testimony.

“He’s allowed to respond to political attacks,” Blanche said.

Trump is charged by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg with falsifying business records to cover up a $US130,000 payment shortly before the 2016 US election to buy the silence of Daniels about a sexual encounter she has said they had 10 years earlier.

Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies such an encounter took place. His lawyers argue that Trump did not commit any crimes and only acted to protect his reputation.

On Tuesday, jurors heard testimony from former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, who prosecutors say participated in a “catch and kill” scheme to suppress unflattering stories about Trump and help him get elected.

“When someone’s running for public office like this, it is very common for these women to call up a magazine like the National Enquirer to try to sell their stories,” Pecker testified.

Pecker said the decision to bury the stories followed a 2015 meeting at which he told Trump that the Enquirer would publish favourable stories about the billionaire candidate and keep an eye out for people selling stories that might hurt him. He said he told an editor to keep the arrangement secret.

Pecker said the Enquirer paid former Playboy model Karen McDougal for her story of a sexual relationship with Trump in 2006 and 2007. He said he bought the story after Trump refused to do so himself.

“He said that any time you do anything like this, it always gets out,” Pecker said.

The Enquirer’s parent company, American Media, said in 2018 it paid $US150,000 for the story. Trump has denied having an affair with McDougal.

The tabloid also paid $US30,000 for a story peddled by Trump Tower doorman, Dino Sajudin, who claimed Trump had fathered a child with a maid who worked for him. The story turned out not to be true, Pecker said.

Both payments had far exceeded the amounts the paper typically paid for stories, he said.

“I made the decision to buy the story because of the potential embarrassment it would have to the campaign and Mr Trump,” Pecker said.

He is expected to testify further when the trial resumes on Thursday.

Trump has said the payments were personal and did not violate election law.

The case may be the only one of the Republican Trump’s four criminal prosecutions to go to trial before his November 5 election rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden.

A guilty verdict would not bar Trump from taking office, but it could hurt his candidacy. Reuters/Ipsos polling shows that half of independent voters and one in four Republicans say they would not vote for Trump if he is convicted of a crime.

Reuters

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