Former president says gag order infringes on First Amendment, as NY judge again holds Trump in contempt and threatens him with jail.
Donald Trump fired back at the judge in his “ridiculous” New York criminal trial after he threatened to jail the former president if he violates a gag order.
“As you know, they’ve taken away my constitutional right. So I’m not allowed to answer that question,” Trump told a reporter outside the Manhattan court room.
“This has never happened in this country before. It’s a ridiculous thing, a ridiculous case. I did nothing wrong. Absolutely nothing wrong.”
“I am allowed to say that the judge has a conflict like nobody’s ever had before,” Trump said, adding, “you ought to take a look at it. He’s taken away my constitutional right to speak.”
The 45th president went on to label the case as “fake,” and accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of doing puppet President Joe Biden’s dirty work.
“They have no case and it’s been absolutely proven now that they have no case whatsoever,” Trump told reporters. “This is Alvin Bragg doing it for political reasons, for Biden. This is a Biden Trial. He’s a crooked president.”
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“They have absolutely no case,” he continued.
“It’s a political hoax, it’s election interference, anything they can do, and even the witnesses they want to bring up, they have nothing to do with the case. This is a ridiculous situation. Not fair, not fair, but we will fight. Thank you.”
Trump’s comments come as Judge Juan Merchan again held Trump in contempt and threatened the former US president with incarceration if he continued to defy the gag order, after he held Trump in contempt last week and fined him $9,000.
“It appears that the $1,000 fines are not serving as a deterrent,” Merchan told Trump on Monday.
“Mr. Trump, I want you to understand the last thing I want to do is put you in jail…The magnitude of such a decision is not lost on me, but at the end of the day, I have a job to do.”
Trump, meanwhile, told reporters on Friday his attorneys were in the process of challenging the constitutionality of the gag order.
