Jury selection in Trump’s hush money trial hasn’t even started, and prosecutors are already moving to punish the former president for his Truth Social posts
Donald Trump has been in court plenty of times in the last few months, but on Monday he became the first American president to stand trial for an alleged criminal offense. Day One of the former president’s trial on charges related to a 2016 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels kicked off in Manhattan — and tensions are already running high.
While the trial will open with what promises to be an intense jury selection process, state prosecutors and Trump’s attorneys preempted the process by arguing over what evidence will be admissible during the proceedings. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg‘s team also pushed to have Trump held in contempt of the court after allegedly violating a gag order put in place by Judge Juan Merchan.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass indicated that the state would submit a request “seeking an order to show cause why Defendant should not be held in contempt” after flaunting an order from the court barring him from attacking witnesses, prosecutors, court staff, and jurors involved in the case. Steinglass argued that — among several other instances — Trump attacked two key witnesses in the case, Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen, in a Wednesday Truth Social post referring to the pair as “sleazebags.”
Merchan imposed a gag order on Trump last month as the former president leveled a series of attacks against those involved in the case — and also Merchan’s daughter. Trump has continued to rail against those involved in the case, while sharing articles about the judge’s daughter rather than explicitly attacking her himself. Trump has also been railing at length about the gag order itself, calling it “unconstitutional’ and “un-American.”
Trump leveled the same accusations against the trial itself while ranting to the media outside of court on Monday. “This is an assault on America. Nothing like this has ever happened before. There has never been anything like it,” the former president said.
