The point of the Donald Trump prosecution in New York City is to wound, smear, and slash his finances leading to the 2024 presidential election. It is meant to weaken and shrink the man, make no mistake. The media revel in this spectacle of Trump in a freezing courtroom, looking “old and tired” and like he’d rather be anywhere else — like perhaps campaigning for president.
That point is made clearer on a daily basis. No, Mr. President, you may not speak. No, Mr. President, you may not be referred to as “president.” No, Mr. President, quoting people is still against the rules we’ve set up to silence you. Well, Mr. President, I’ll think about allowing you to take a day off to attend your son’s graduation. If you’re a good boy.
It would be one thing to bend the knee to the courts if Donald Trump had actually done anything wrong in this Hush Trump bookkeeping case, but this case is as nakedly partisan and grotesque as it gets.
The judge has had Trump’s request for weeks. On the first day of the trial, Trump fumed that the judge still wouldn’t give him an answer on being able to pause court to go to Barron’s graduation. “I was looking forward to that graduation with his mother and father there,” he told a gaggle of reporters outside the courtroom. “And,” he continued, “it looks like the judge does not allow me to escape this scam.” For the uninitiated, defendants are allowed to attend all kinds of family events — weddings, funerals, graduations, and the like — during trials.
After canceling court Monday, taking his usual Wednesday off this week, and knocking off early last Friday, it would be hard for the judge in the Trump New York trial to sell the idea that the former president of the United States of America couldn’t go to his youngest and last child’s high school graduation.
Trump has complained bitterly that the judge refused to permit him to attend Barron’s high school graduation in Florida. On Tuesday, the judge finally gave Trump an answer.
He told Trump’s team, “I don’t think the May 17 date is a problem.” The judge said court would not be in session on that Friday or the following Friday for the Memorial Day weekend.
Barron goes to a private school near the family compound, Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Eric Trump, and Trump campaign adviser Susan Wiles were in the courtroom on Tuesday, according to the Washington Post.
In another ruling on Tuesday when the trial resumed, Judge Merchan also fined Trump $1,000 for each of the first nine contempt charges brought against the former president for a total of $9,000. Trump is under a gag order, unable to defend himself outside of court or amplify news stories, quotes, or multimedia that defend him.
Related: The Judge Drops the Hammer on Trump for Breaking Gag Order
By contrast, former Trump attorney Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels, to whom Cohen paid $130,000 as part of a nondisclosure agreement, have both been giving interviews, speaking out against Trump. Cohen has a podcast — and he’s making bank on the program — and a highly viewed TikTok account in which he rages against his former client frequently
For the first time in any hearing, the judge on Tuesday issued a caution to both the former porno lady and Cohen to tamp down their comments.