Trump Scolded by Hush Money Judge for Falsely Claiming Gag Order Prevents Him From Testifying

Former president Donald Trump got scolded by the judge in his hush money criminal trial after falsely claiming that the gag order enforced against him prohibited him from testifying. Trump, who claimed last year that he would 'absolutely' testify in his case if it came to it, stated to reporters outside the courtroom on May 2nd that the gag order he is now subject to would prevent him from doing so, according to HuffPost. “I’m not allowed to testify. I’m under a gag order,” he said. “I’m not allowed to testify because this judge who’s totally conflicted, has me under an unconstitutional gag order.”

The next morning, on May 3, Judge Juan Merchan cleared any apparent discrepancies by informing Trump that he was permitted to speak in court, as per MSNBC. Addressing Trump, Merchan stated that the gag order “does not prohibit you from taking the stand.” He added, “As the name of the order indicates, it only applies to extrajudicial statements.”

Trump's lie was also exposed by CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale. “This claim that the gag order means he can’t testify, it’s just conjured out of thin air,” he told Jake Tapper. “Trump has gone from saying that he will testify, to he maybe will testify, to if it’s necessary, to now, ‘Whoa, whoa, I can’t testify, it’s out of my hands.’ But it’s in his hands. He can testify and he’s just making stuff up.”

Trump is “absolutely permitted to testify in his own defense and this false claim, this lie, is part of a pattern of former President Trump grossly exaggerating what the gag order actually says,” he noted. The order doesn’t ban Trump “from speaking to political audiences, from delivering social media posts about politics and policy, from speaking to the media,” nor does it “prevent him from attacking the judge, the district attorney prosecuting this case, President Biden, or any of his other political opponents,” said Dale.

Instead, the gag order only prohibits Trump from discussing the jurors in the case, potential witnesses, or court officials. However, Trump has exhibited ignorance of the criminal prosecution procedure on previous occasions. He claimed last month that his attorneys had been subjected to arbitrary limitations during the jury selection, even though those limitations are established by law.

The question of whether he will take the stand and answer questions from the jury while under oath is yet to be seen, given his contradictory statements. Trump's verbosity resulted in a fine of $9,000 for nine violations of a gag order intended to shield trial participants from his abuse, as per The Guardian. Merchan, on April 30, concluded that Trump had broken the order in nine of the ten cases that the prosecution had said he had, and he issued a warning that more infractions may result in jail time. “Defendant is hereby warned that the Court will not tolerate continued willful violations of its lawful orders and that if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, it will impose an incarceratory punishment,” Merchan wrote in an eight-page order.