Former President Donald Trump called on supporters to protest and “RALLY BEHIND MAGA” hours before his appearance in a Manhattan courtroom Monday for the second week of his hush money trial in a Truth Social post peppered with false statements.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media, flanked by lawyer Todd Blanche, after ... [+]
Trump on Monday urged his supporters to “GO OUT AND PEACEFULLY PROTEST” to “SAVE OUR COUNTRY!” while alleging his supporters’ constitutional rights are being violated when their protests outside of Manhattan criminal court are limited by the NYPD to designated areas (a routine practice in New York City for any high-profile event where protests are expected).
Trump claimed his supporters are “rudely and systemically shut down and ushered off to far away ‘holding areas,’” while “those who are destroying our Country on the Radical Left” are allowed to protest “at the front steps of Courthouses.”
Small crowds of pro- and anti-Trump supporters were separated by NYPD barricades in Collect Pond Park, directly across the street from the Manhattan Criminal Court where protesters, reporters and observers routinely gather during high-profile events, during the first week of Trump’s trial (dividing opposing protest groups to avoid clashes is also routine NYPD practice).
Trump also falsely claimed “Palestinian protesters and even rioters” are “allowed to roam the Cities, scream, shout, sit, block traffic, enter buildings, not get permits, and basically do whatever they want including threatening Supreme Court Justices right in front of their homes.”
But pro-Palestinian protesters have been regularly arrested across multiple cities and campuses—including at Columbia University less than 10 miles away from Trump’s trial—since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October.
Protesters gathered outside the homes of Supreme Court justices after the leaked Dobbs decision that ultimately overturned Roe v. Wade, and at least one man who law enforcement says traveled to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home with a cadre of weapons was arrested and charged with attempting to murder him in July 2022.
Trump has consistently attacked the judges overseeing his criminal and civil cases, along with prosecutors, court staff and potential witnesses in the cases, prompting multiple gag orders, including one issued by the judge overseeing his Manhattan trial, Juan Merchan, barring him from disparaging witnesses, jurors, court staff and their families and the families of Merchan and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Manhattan prosecutors began presenting their case against Trump—he’s charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records—to jurors Monday, marking the second week of his historic trial. Trump is accused of falsely labeling payments reimbursing his former lawyer Michael Cohen for $130,000 he paid adult film star Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence about allegations of an affair with Trump as legal services. Prosecutors allege Trump executed the scheme in the lead-up to the 2016 election in a bid to sway the results in his favor. Trump has denied the affair allegations and has pleaded not guilty in the case, which he has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, was brought in coordination with President Joe Biden and his allies to hurt his chances of winning the election.
Trump also claimed on Truth Social in a series of early morning posts Monday that “virtually every legal scholar and expert says that there is NO CASE, NO CRIME, NO NOTHING!” . Hush money payments themselves are not illegal, but legal experts arguing in favor of the charges have pointed to the voluminous evidence Bragg’s office has compiled, including public statements from Cohen and Daniels, that illustrate Trump’s efforts to cover up the payments under the guise of legal expenses.
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