Romney weighs in on Trump trial as Judge Merchan confronts former president for violating gag order

As the criminal trial against former President Donald Trump continues, Judge Juan Merchan began trial Tuesday morning listening to arguments on whether or not Trump had violated his gag order. The gag order in place prohibits Trump from speaking out against witnesses, jurors and the families of Merchan and District Attorney Alvin Bragg — prosecutors say he’s violated the order at least 10 times.

In the hearing, prosecutor Chris Conroy told Merchan that Trump’s decision to break the gag order was on purpose and intentional, while Trump’s lead attorney, Todd Blanche, argued that Trump was only defending himself from political attacks.

According to NBC News, the hearing did not seem to go in the defense’s favor. Merchan asked Blanche for specific examples and was frustrated with his response, “I keep asking you over and over to give me an example and I’m not getting an answer,” Merchan said.

“You’re losing all credibility with the court,” Merchan added when Blanche said that Trump was trying to comply with the gag order.

Before court on Tuesday, Trump, who is the presumptive Republican nominee, posted in all caps on Truth Social, “Highly conflicted, to put it mildly, Judge Juan Merchan, has taken away my constitutional right to free speech. Everybody is allowed to talk and lie about me, but I am not allowed to defend myself. This is a kangaroo court, and the judge should recuse himself!”

The prosecution is asking that Trump be fined $1,000 for every gag violation and, if he continues, to face at least 30 days in jail on top of fines.

Pecker takes the stand again

The first witness, David Pecker, former CEO of American Media Inc., the parent company of the National Enquirer, went back on the stand for questioning Wednesday.

The criminal case centers around hush money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels — who allegedly had a sexual relationship with Trump years ago — leading up to his presidential election in 2016. Bragg is accusing Trump of falsifying business records connected to a $130,000 payment made to Daniels by Michael Cohen, his attorney at the time.

Pecker, Cohen and Trump are accused of “scheming” together to buy and kill stories about Trump in 2015 during his run for president and publishing stories attacking his political opponents, which Pecker said boosted his tabloid’s sales.

“They asked me what can I do and what my magazines can do to help the campaign,” Pecker said in his testimony, per the New York Post.

“Thinking about it, I said what I would do is I would run or publish positive stories about Mr. Trump, and publish negative stories about his opponents,” he added. “I said I would be your eyes and ears, and then I said that anything I hear in the marketplace, if I hear anything about women selling stories, I would notify Michael Cohen,” Pecker testified

The court will not be in session on Wednesday, but Pecker will continue his testimony on Thursday. Trump will have more than one case on his mind on Thursday, “In Washington, some of his other lawyers will be arguing in front of the Supreme Court that Mr. Trump should receive presidential immunity from prosecution in a federal election interference case,” according to The New York Times. “Trump had sought to take a day away from his New York case to watch those arguments, but Justice Merchan denied his request.”

Romney weighs in on Trump trial

Responding on Tuesday to a question from CNN’s Manu Raju about the Trump hush money trial, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, a Republican, questioned Trump’s motives for making payments to Daniels.

“I think everybody has made their own assessment of President Trump’s character, and so far as I know you don’t pay someone $130,000 not to have sex with you,” said Romney.