The Daily Fuckup

Donald Trump’s Manhattan hush-money trial picked up another contempt fight on April 25, when prosecutors asked Judge Juan Merchan to find him in criminal contempt again for alleged violations of the case’s expanded gag order. The filing came as the trial was already underway and after the court had expanded the order earlier in the month to limit what Trump could say publicly about people tied to the case.

The new motion did not accuse Trump of a single fresh outburst on April 25 alone. According to Merchan’s later May 6 order, prosecutors said the third contempt motion covered four alleged violations tied to remarks Trump made on April 22, April 23 and April 25. Those statements included comments about Michael Cohen, remarks about the jury and how it was selected, and a brief comment about witness David Pecker.

The legal timing matters. April 25 was the day prosecutors filed the motion. It was not the day of a contempt ruling. Merchan reserved decision after a hearing and issued his order on May 6. In that ruling, he found Trump in contempt for one statement: the April 22 hallway comment about the jury and the way it was chosen. The judge rejected the other three allegations, saying he could not find beyond a reasonable doubt that they crossed the line.

Merchan’s order also laid out the path to this point. The court first issued the gag order on March 26, then expanded it on April 1 after seeking clarification about speech aimed at family members of the court and the district attorney, along with others covered by the order. Prosecutors had already filed two earlier contempt motions before the April 25 filing. By the time Merchan ruled on the third one, he said the defendant had now been found in contempt ten times across three separate motions.

Trump’s lawyers argued that his comments were protected political speech or otherwise outside the order. Merchan accepted that argument for some of the challenged remarks, but not for the jury-related comment. The judge said the statement about jury selection threatened the fairness of the proceedings and the safety of jurors and their families.

The result on April 25 was another round of legal exposure, not a finished contempt finding. But the filing showed the same basic problem the court has been dealing with throughout the trial: Trump kept speaking publicly about people and issues the judge had already ordered him to leave alone, and each new comment gave prosecutors another chance to bring the issue back to court.