JUST IN: Trump Quickly Deletes Truth Social Complaint About Surprise Witness Amid Jail Threat Over Gag Order
AP Photo/Mary Altaffer
Former President Donald Trump posted another criticism of Judge Juan Merchan on social media early Tuesday morning, but for reasons that aren’t entirely clear, it was then deleted. DRAMA!
Around 7:30 a.m., Trump posted a complaint about how he was “just recently been told who the witness is today” before going on about how this process was “unprecedented,” giving his legal team “no time to prepare.” He then returned to attacks on Judge Juan Merchan, who on Monday threatened the former president with jail time for repeatedly breaking his gag order.
Trump wrote:
I have just recently been told who the witness is today. This is unprecedented, no time for lawyers to prepare. No Judge has ever run a trial in such a biased and partisan way. He is CROOKED & HIGHLY CONFLICTED, even taking away my First Amendment Rights. Now he’s threatening me with JAIL, & THEY HAVE NO CASE – This according to virtually all Legal Scholars & Experts! Why isn’t the Fake News Media reporting his Conflict?
A screencap of the post:
Within the next half hour or so, the Truth Social post was deleted, and not apparently due to any typos, which never seemed to be reason enough to take down posts. The Truth Social link led to a “Not found” message, which indicates that the post was almost certainly deleted.
Did Trump delete the social media post over concerns that it violates the gag order and could result in his spending time behind bars? On Monday, Trump suggested he would be willing to go to jail to make a broader point about his constitutional rights.
“The judge is so happy about two to three more weeks because all they want is to keep me off the campaign trail. That’s all this is about.” Trump continued:
And have the other thing that maybe is even more disgraceful is the gag order, where I can’t, basically, I have to watch every word I tell you people. You ask me a question, a simple question, I’d like to give it but I can’t talk about it because this judge is giving me a gag order and says you’ll go to jail if you violate it. And frankly, you know what? Our Constitution is much more important than jail. It’s not even close. I’ll do that sacrifice any day.
Judge Merchan found Trump in contempt for a tenth time Monday, and added a pointed warning about the possibly he could order the former president to be incarcerated, saying the $1,000 fines he has imposed were not effective.
Deleting the post suggests that may have been just the posture of a strong man who really doesn’t want to be in the pokey.
