Donald Trump once again criticized the judge who imposed a gag order on him prior to his hush-money trial in April.
On his Truth Social platform, the former president expressed his strong disapproval of New York Judge Juan Merchan, stating that he should face immediate sanctions and recusal.
The trial of Trump’s first criminal case is scheduled to begin on April 15, making it the first of his four criminal cases to go to trial. This comes as the presumptive Republican nominee campaigns for the White House.
The focus of the case revolves around accusations that Trump inaccurately recorded payments to his lawyer, Michael Cohen, as legal fees. In reality, these payments were meant to reimburse him for the funds used to keep allegations of extramarital sexual encounters hidden during his victorious 2016 election campaign.
Last year, Trump entered a plea of not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records, a felony that carries a potential prison sentence of up to four years. He maintains his innocence and denies any wrongdoing.
“This is an absolute disgrace to our legal system,” Trump expressed on Truth Social.
“Judge Merchan should face immediate sanctions and be recused. This fabricated ‘case’, which is being kept alive solely by the highly conflicted judge, must be dismissed without any further delay. There is no basis for this case, no crime has been committed.”
According to him, legal experts and scholars unanimously believe that this is a case that should never have been initiated. It is regarded as a political and election-interfering witch hunt, similar to the previous hoaxes orchestrated by the Department of Justice against the political opponent of corrupt Joe Biden. The intention behind these actions was to assist in the reelection of the worst president in the history of the United States.
Newsweek reached out to a Trump spokesperson for comment via email. Similarly, Merchan was contacted for comment through an email sent to a spokesperson for New York’s state court system.
Recently, Trump has been launching multiple attacks against Merchan and his daughter, Loren Merchan. It is worth noting that Loren’s firm has been involved in the campaigns of President Joe Biden and various other Democrats.
According to him, Merchan’s daughter recently shared a photo on social media expressing her clear intention of seeing him behind bars.
According to a spokesperson for New York’s state court system, the Twitter account that Trump mentioned, previously owned by Loren Merchan, no longer belongs to her. It seems that someone else has taken control of the account after she deleted it last year.
According to a statement from court spokesperson Al Baker, the account in question is not associated with the email address of the individual in question, and they have not posted under that screen name since deleting the account. Instead, the account seems to have been recreated and manipulated in April, despite being abandoned a long time ago.
Juan Merchan has imposed a gag order in the case, preventing Trump from making any public comments regarding witnesses, prosecutors, court staff, and jurors in the trial.
Comments about Juan Merchan or his family, or criticism of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office is prosecuting Trump, are not prohibited.
Judge Merchan agreed to Bragg’s request for a gag order. The judge cited Trump’s history of making “threatening, inflammatory, denigrating” remarks about individuals involved in his legal cases.
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