Former President Donald Trump’s relentless attacks on the judges and prosecutors overseeing a series of criminal cases against him are central to his 2024 run for president.
He has framed the 88 criminal indictments, covering everything from his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot to charges of business fraud in New York, as a politically motivated attempt to block him from a second term in the White House.
But his attacks, done in defiance of multiple gag orders by the judges in those cases, present as much legal peril to the former president as they do political gain.
Trump’s attorneys could lose access to the names of jurors if he defies those orders, according to legal experts, and the former president even faces the possibility of jail time.
Yet Trump has continued to attack the judges and members of their families, creating a high-stakes confrontation with the legal system that could be as consequential as his rematch against President Joe Biden in November.
A newly expanded gag order this week barred Trump from speaking publicly about New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan’s daughter, Loren, and family members for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the 34-count hush-money case against the former president.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg requested the expanded gag order as he prosecutes Trump for allegedly paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election cycle. Trump pleaded not guilty to all 34 criminal charges Bragg brought against him and is seeking to delay the April 15 trial, when jury selection is slated to commence.
Merchan initially issued the gag order last week barring Trump from publicly speaking on court staff, prosecutors involved in the case, and their family members. But he did not initially clarify that his daughter was off limits.
Trump took to social media and excoriated the younger Merchan, due to her work with a Democratic marketing company, after last week’s gag order.
“Judge Juan Merchan is totally compromised, and should be removed from this TRUMP Non-Case immediately. His Daughter, Loren, is a Rabid Trump Hater, who has admitted to having conversations with her father about me, and yet he gagged me,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The former president has also called for Merchan to recuse himself from presiding over the trial.
Andrew Lieb, an attorney for Lieb at Law, told the Washington Examiner he has no doubt that Trump’s railing against Merchan’s daughter is politically effective but called his tactics from the legal standpoint a “bad move.”
“He’s trying to show that all judges are biased against him,” Lieb said, adding that he understands Trump’s defense is formulating a strategy but that he doesn’t believe it will stand up to legal muster.
“I think Trump thinks that he can pick fights with judges and families and then he can later utilize that to argue that they [should] be thrown off. If that’s the case, then wouldn’t every defendant in every case start doing that?” Lieb said.
Merchan recently warned Trump would forfeit his right to access the names of jurors if his behavior didn’t change in accordance with the updated gag order.
“There’s always the question of how to regulate Trump, and what threats short of jail to impose,” wrote Harry Litman, a former U.S. attorney and law professor, on X. “Merchan comes up with a good one: If Trump doesn’t control himself, he will lose access to juror names at trial. That’s a real strategic disadvantage.”
The April 15 trial represents a political headache for the former president who will be forced to spend days in court instead of the campaign trial once the trial starts, and the trial is expected to last up to six weeks.
“Not being able to schedule rallies across the country certainly is a detriment to his campaign,” Matt Dole, a Republican political consultant based in Ohio, told the Washington Examiner. “Now, the other side of that is he will be on TV every day. The cable news will be covering him every day. The Left will be saying crazy things about him every day.”
The blaring lights of the media will also bolster Trump’s allegations that he is a victim of political persecution, Dole added.
“I don’t think he will lose messaging opportunities,” Dole said. “This also means that he will test the limits of any gag order that a judge puts on him. So that’s potentially dangerous territory for him. But I don’t think he really loses a beat being in New York in court, given the coverage that is going to result from that.”
The Merchans are not the only family that has weathered attacks from the former president. Trump has also blasted the family members of judges in different trials he faces as he battles 88 criminal indictments.
As Trump battled against a New York civil fraud trial, he blasted Justice Arthur Engoron’s wife, which led to the reinstitution of gag orders barring Trump and his lawyers from speaking on staff working on the trial. Trump had previously violated gag orders in the trial, resulting in Engoron fining him twice to the tune of $15,000.
Trump has often referred to Engoron and other judges as “corrupt” in his claims that the justice system has been weaponized against him.
In the Washington, D.C., criminal trial over allegations he sought to overturn the 2020 election, Trump shared a post on Truth Social in September that slammed U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan as “Another judge from a Marxist family.”
In November, Trump went after special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading two cases against Trump, and his family. “The Trump-hating prosecutor in the case, his wife and family despise me much more than he does, and I think he’s about a 10,” Trump said during a New Hampshire rally.
As the New York trial on April 15 approaches, Trump is likely to continue testing the limits on how far he can go in attacking judges and their families. The tactic could hurt his trials while still helping him win GOP support ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
Bragg’s office on Wednesday urged Merchan to reject an attempt by Trump to delay the trial after defense counsel, led by Todd Blanche and Susan Necheles, argued that “potential jurors in Manhattan have been exposed to huge amounts of biased and unfair media coverage relating to this case,” but prosecutors said a thorough jury selection process can yield an impartial jury.”
Manhattan prosecutors argued that much of the publicity Trump’s lawyers complained about is due to his own actions.
“Defendant’s own incessant rhetoric is generating significant publicity, and it would be perverse to reward defendant with an adjournment based on media attention he is actively seeking,” assistant district attorney Matthew Colangelo, a former top Justice Department official under President Joe Biden, wrote in response to Trump’s motion.
Separately, Merchan on Wednesday denied Trump’s bid to stave off his hush money trial based on presidential immunity, saying Trump failed to file the motion by a March 7 deadline.
Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahimi told the Washington Examiner he believes Merchan is “100% going to decline” Trump’s latest bid to recuse the judge from his case.
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“Every time he rails against our justice system, he undermines it and he gets a boost in the polls,” Rahimi said, adding there’s a percentage of the public who believes “even if he’s a convicted felon, and even if he’s sent me to prison, that he’s been treated unfairly.”
“Politically it may make all the sense in the world, but legally it makes no sense at all,” Rahimi said.