‘He really pushes the boundaries’: How Trump has challenged judges trying to rein him in
CNN
It took Donald Trump less than 24 hours to push the boundaries set by Judge Juan Merchan’s gag order in his New York criminal trial.
It took Donald Trump less than 24 hours to test the boundaries of Judge Juan Merchan’s gag order in his New York criminal trial. In two posts on his Truth Social account, the former president attacked Merchan for issuing the gag order – and he went after the judge’s daughter for her liberal political work, exploiting the ambiguous language in the order that didn’t explicitly forbid discussion of Merchan’s family. On Monday, Merchan pushed back, expanding the gag order to cover his family – though the judge remains fair game for Trump – and attempting to limit Trump’s vitriol two weeks before the trial is set to begin. Merchan’s need to issue a second gag order highlights the significant and unique challenge that Trump poses for the judge overseeing the unprecedented first criminal trial in US history of a former president and current presidential candidate. In the past six months, Trump has sat in a half-dozen different courtrooms before judges overseeing his four criminal and two of his civil cases, along with a federal appellate court. A CNN review of Trump’s appearances shows how the former president has taken repeated steps both inside and outside the courtroom to test the limits of judges – and the judicial system – trying to rein him in. “He really pushes the boundaries. He walks up to the line and doesn’t quite cross the line, but he stomps on it – and in essence, taunts the court,” said Karen Friedman Agnifilo, a CNN legal analyst and former prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
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