‘Trump Was Brought to Heel!’ CNN Analyst Fact-Checks Trump Courthouse Rants, Says Gag Order Worked
CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen fact-checked former President Donald Trump’s courthouse rant and said that Judge Arthur Engoron’s gag order had “brought Trump to heel.”
Trump was in court once again for the trial in the fraud case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James and presided over by Judge Engoron, where reporters peppered him with questions.
Trump ignored the questions and launched into a litany of well-worn and false or misleading attacks on the proceeding against him.
On Thursday’s edition of CNN News Central, Eisen torpedoed Trump’s false and misleading patter, and noted that while he attacked the judge and the proceeding, he did not violate the gag order forbidding him from attacking court staff:
DONALD TRUMP: He was overturned by the appellate division of the New York State Supreme Court, which is a higher court, much higher court than where we are right now. The judge refused to acknowledge that this case would be over because that was about 90% of the case having to do with statute of limitations. This case should be over.
BORIS SANCHEZ: Norm was shaking his head as that clip was playing.
NORM EISEN: Oh, look, he’s been, Trump and his lawyers have been back and forth to the appellate courts over and over again since that decision on statute of limitations came down.
If the appellate courts thought that they were being defied, they would have shut the case down. They have declined to do that.
Trump is mixing apples and oranges. Yes, there was a statute of limitations issue that pared the case back. As you know, Ivanka Trump, as a result, is out of the case, but it doesn’t invalidate the attorney general’s entire case. As is so often with the former president. He is not exactly 100% candid and truthful in how he’s describing legal events, seeing things perhaps the way that he wants to see them.
BRIANNA KEILAR: Exactly. Exactly. There. And so let’s talk about the gag order. This is in place here. I think it’s really worth mentioning. So he cannot comment about the court staff. He got in trouble for that before. There are things he can still talk about. The judge, the ag witness testimony, a whole lot more. What’s interesting here is that it seems that having been fined a couple of times, he is now staying within these boundaries because they have been enforced. And I wonder if you think that is going to be a roadmap for judges in other cases, specifically the federal election subversion case here in D.C.?
NORM EISEN: I do, Brianna. We’ve followed together the vicissitudes of the state gag order and the federal gag order. On again, off again. The state courts. And I think this is a preview of what’s going to happen with the federal gag order here in D.C. for the coming March trial. The state courts have now turned that gag order back on.
And today Trump was brought to heel! He had a press availability before the court. No attacks on judicial staff. He had one after he appeared in court. Again, no attacks, and no attacks in court!
So it shows that he can be controlled. He is a rational actor. And will that hold? Will he make a strategic choice to politically inflame his base by violating the gag order and having some drama? He may do it, but if he does it, today’s compliance shows that will be intentional. And these gag orders are consistent with the First Amendment. As the New York appellate courts that Mr. Trump celebrated have found now.
Watch above via CNN News Central.
