Elie Honig Baffled by Lack of Ruling on Trump Gag Order: ‘I’m Mystified by This’

CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig said he does not know why Judge Juan Merchan has yet to rule on whether Donald Trump violated the gag order in his New York criminal trial.

Merchan issued the order earlier this month after the former president attacked witnesses in the case and the judge’s daughter. Since then, Trump has made several statements that may run afoul of the gag. In one instance, Trump quoted a Fox News host claiming that “Liberal Activists” in the jury pool had lied to become impaneled in jury selection. At the time, former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Toobin said Trump “clearly” violated the order.

Merchan has already held one hearing on whether Trump violated the order and has scheduled a second for Thursday.

Honig and Toobin discussed the lack of a ruling so far on Monday’s AC360 on CNN.

“Part of the reason you have a gag order is you want to stop any sort of bad behavior on the part of the people who were gagged,” Toobin said. “There is a good case that Trump has already violated it, but the judge hasn’t ruled on it yet. Now, it’s like a perpetual motion machine. He keeps violating the gag order more, according to the prosecution, so they keep extending more hearings. There should be a ruling very soon.”

Honig agreed:

I’m mystified by this. I mean, I’m officially retired from the art of predicting when this judge is going to rule on this because I think I’ve said every day it has to be today. And I think he’s leaving the door open. Judge Merchan’s doing a good job so far. He’s the kind of judge I would’ve liked to appear in front of as a prosecutor. He’s keeping order and efficiency in that courtroom. But this is a blind spot for him. I don’t get what the delay is.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business to conceal hush money payments to cover up extramarital affairs he had before the 2016 election.

Watch above via CNN.