In this courtroom sketch, Michael Cohen looks at the United States as he is questioned by lawyers for the attorney general’s office during the trial of the Trump Organization’s civil fraud case in New York State Supreme Court in the Manhattan borough of New York City in October Former President Donald Trump. .24, 2023.
Jane Rosenberg | Reuters
Donald Trump on Saturday took aim at two potential witnesses in his upcoming hush-money trial in New York, testing the boundaries of a gag order that prohibits such public remarks.
“Has Mark Pomerantz been prosecuted for his horrific conduct inside and outside the DA’s office. Has disgraced attorney and felon Michael Cohen been prosecuted for lying?” Posted by Former President on truth society.
The social media post is the latest challenge to a gag order that prevents Trump from making public statements about potential witnesses and jurors.
Cohen previously served as Trump’s personal attorney and is likely to be a key witness in the trial. In 2018, he pleaded guilty to charges related to hush money payments to two women in 2016, which he said were made at the “instruction” of an unnamed person. 2016 presidential candidates. He is expected to mention Trump’s name in the upcoming trial.
Pomerantz A former prosecutor who resigned in 2022 after leading the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office investigation into Trump’s hush-money payments.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin on Monday in the trial in which Trump faces 34 counts related to falsifying business records and allegedly concealing a $130,000 hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016. The trial start date was pushed back from March 25 to give Trump’s legal team time to review new documents.
On March 26, New York State Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan (Juan Merchan), who was presiding over the case, issued an initial gag order, and later after Trump continued to pursue the case, Merchan’s daughter worked for a Democratic political consulting firm. , he expanded the gag order.
In the weeks since, Trump has repeatedly gambled on the restrictions of the gag order.
in a truth society posts On Wednesday, Trump attacked Cohen and another potential witness, Daniels, calling them “two scumbags.”
Trump has previously said it would be a “great honor” to be jailed for violating a gag order and likened himself to a “modern-day Nelson Mandela,” the former South African president who was jailed for his opposition to apartheid decades.
This is not the first time Trump has faced consequences for violating a gag order. In another trial in October, Judge Arthur Engoron fined Trump $10,000 for violating the gag order.
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