Whoa II! Merchan Threatens Trump Lawyers With Criminal Contempt

It’s a Terrible Tuesday, 20 days out from the first criminal trial of four for Donald Trump, and it is one smoking hot day — and we’re not talking about the weather. We’re talking about the temperature in the courthouse and for the second time in one day, Judge Juan Merchan has made it abundantly clear that he expects strict adherence to the rules from both the defendant and his lawyers.

It’s beyond doubt that Trump’s lawyers are miserable. They wanted to continue the trial date and that simply isn’t going to happen. And delay is not the only Trump lawyer tool that this particular judge is rendering useless. Meidas Touch:

This morning, Merchan issued a pretrial order ripping Trump’s legal team for repeated efforts to stall and postpone the trial. He followed that up later in the day by hitting Trump with a gag order, which prohibits him from disparaging any court personnel or their family members.

In the pretrial order, Merchan began by stating that “Defendant has repeatedly tried to delay the start of the trial.” He noted that many pretrial motions have already been filed by Trump’s legal team, and all of them were decided promptly on February 15, 2024. Merchan then scolded them for filing a new motion, less than three weeks before trial and after the deadlines, asserting presidential immunity, and issued an Order the following day that they were not to file any additional motions without first seeking permission of the court.

Here’s a link to the entire document.

“This Court advises counsel that it expects and welcome zealous advocacy and creative lawyering. However, the Court also expects those advocates to demonstrate the proper respect and decorum that is owed to the courts and its judicial officers and to never forget that they are officers of the court. As such, counsel is expected to follow this Court’s orders. As such, “a court of record has power to punish for a criminal contempt, a person guilty of . . . [w]illful disobedience to its lawful mandate.” This Court emphasizes that it hopes for and fully expects zealous advocacy from counsel as well as spirited contribution from witnesses and parties alike. Nonetheless, the Court expects that the line between zealous advocacy and willful disregard of its orders will not be crossed.”

And if they do willfully disregard the court’s order then a criminal contempt citation will be their reward.

This is exactly what is needed at this point, is a no nonsense judge moving the trial along. What’s intriguing is that this trial was considered, of the four criminal trials, to be the weak sister, with the documents case, January 6 case and George election racketeering cases considered to be the strongest (and in that order.)

That may not be the case. Judge Merchan looks to be handling this case by the book and with precision. And maybe Trump’s lawyers should attempt to explain to their client the difference between a civil trial and a criminal trial because Judge Merchan could decide to jail Trump if and when he’s in violation of his gag order, or in contempt of court in any other way.

That would certainly be something, to see a presidential candidate, a few months out from the formal nomination of his party, cooling his heels in a Manhattan jail cell. And it could happen. Judge Merchan does not appear to be the least bit concerned with optics. He’s going by the book and if that includes throwing the book at Trump and/or his lawyers, then it looks like he’s fully prepared to do that. Hallelujah. This could be the turning point we’ve all been waiting for.