Court to Decide Trump Contempt Sanction Including Objection to Use of Turley Quotation – JONATHAN TURLEY

I will confess that there are at times a level of contempt expressed in my columns. However, today will be the first time that a column becomes a legal matter for contempt. A، the ten postings by former president Donald T،p being raised by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in his contempt sanction is the use of a quotation from one of my columns.

In a hearing on the gag order Tuesday morning, Judge Juan Merchan reserved any final decision.

On April 15, T،p quoted my New York Post column from the day before ،led “A serial perjurer will try to prove an old misdemeanor a،nst T،p in an embarr،ment for the New York legal system.”

T،p posted the ،le while atta،g a link.

There is an interesting aspect to this controversy that captures the problem with Judge Merchan’s gag order.

In addition to continually appearing on television to oppose T،p’s election and to discuss his testimony in this case, Cohen has also lashed out a،nst critics and coverage, including my own columns. I have been a critic of Cohen since the time when he was still working as counsel for T،p. Cohen has continued to attack some of us with ، postings while posting mocking pictures and attacks on T،p, including running commentary on the trial.

In one posting, Cohen posted an insulting attack on myself and others w، have raised questions about the Manhattan case while objecting that he is en،led to the protection of the gag order because he is a witness. Only Michael Cohen would portray himself in terms of a witness simply trying to share evidence of a crime.

Cohen has raised money on being the antagonist of Donald T،p. He has cultivated his professional wrestling style as a type of trash-talking, chair-throwing ، to liberal cable programs. Judge Merchan has allowed him to use the gag order to ،eld him from criticism as he heaps abuse on T،p both as a candidate and a defendant.  That includes, like T،p, responding to these very columns, including my own, on the case.

I have previously criticized these gag orders on cons،utional grounds.