Acting New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, arraigning Donald Trump Wednesday afternoon, specifically warned the ex-president to not make any threats against officials involved in his case and not do anything that would incite violence. Barely four hours later, speaking live on national and international television networks, Trump did just that, targeting the judge and his family.
“I have a Trump hating judge with a Trump hating wife and family, whose daughter worked for Kamala Harris and now receives money from the Biden/Harris campaign, and a lot of it,” Trump told supporters at Mar-a-Lago Tuesday night. “We recently had another trial and this same judge told another man who worked for me, for many, many years, that, ‘if you admit your guilt you will be in jail for 90 days. But if you don’t, and we go through a trial and you’re found guilty, you’re going away for ten years and maybe longer.”
“Which for a 75-year old man with a great family, really means life. What the prosecutor and the judge did to that man I will never forget. It’s right out of the old Soviet Union. That’s where we are!”
A CNN panel discussing the ex-president’s post-arraignment speech called his remarks “thinly-veiled threats.”
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, who appears to have been inside the courthouse today, observed, “After the judge today issued a request, ‘to counsel on both sides,’ about refraining from comments that ‘jeopardize the safety or well-being of any individuals,’ Trump tells the Mar-a-Lago crowd he has a ‘Trump-hating judge with a Trump-hating wife’ in New York case.”
Trump Tuesday afternoon was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The charging documents state the ex-president “repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election,” CNN reported.
Also Tuesday night during his speech Trump told supporters Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is a “criminal” who should be “prosecuted.”
Watch Trump’s remarks targeting Judge Merchan below or at this link.