Prosecutors ask judge to sanction Trump over social posts

We are live

outside the New York City courthouse

where Donald Trump's first

criminal trial is under way.

Moments ago,

they just took a break for lunch.

They have been inside that courtroom

for several hours,

but no actual jurors have yet

been brought inside the room as they are

still arguing over stuff

that happens before

the trial gets officially underway.

What evidence can be argued

whether or not Donald Trump has been

has violated his gag order?

As you know,

we've put a lot of time outside

this Manhattan

courthouse where Donald Trump

is going to be spending the next six

to eight weeks.

Today

is especially loud, as you can hear us on

his supporters are out here.

Some of his detractors

are over to our left.

Obviously, a lot of members of the media

as this is fueled intense coverage,

given its historic nature,

it is the first criminal trial

of a former president to ever be held.

So we are watching all of this.

And, Paula, you know,

right before we got into this break,

what prosecutors are asking

the judge to do here

is to find Donald Trump

for violating his gag order.

That's right.

They're pointing to three posts

that he has made,

at least one of which he refers

to as Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen,

potentially two key witnesses

in this case as, quote, sleaze backs.

And here,

the prosecutors are asking for him

to be fined $1,000 for each post and also

asking the judge

to warn Trump, remind him

that if he continues to violate

this gag order,

he could be held in contempt.

Now, the judge has not yet

ruled on this motion.

And, of course, we are in a break.

But this is going to be an issue

that will likely come up

pretty much every day.

And we are joined outside

this courthouse by Judge Jill

Cotton Visor,

a former New York state

Supreme Court justice

who is also friends with Judge Mershon.

That is the judge overseeing

this case that Trump has tried

unsuccessfully time and time and

time and time again

to recuse himself from this case.

And, Judge, it's great to have you here,

especially just given your knowledge of

Judge Mershon,

because he has,

you know,

intense impact on shaping

what this is going to look like.

And right now, on day

one, he's been faced with this decision.

Did Donald Trump violate this gag order

and how does he respond?

If so,

he's deciding clearly after Brady,

after the lunch break.

How do you think he's weighing this?

Well, I think that Juan

Rashan is in a great position

to be

the judge in this particular case

because of the depth of his experience.

People look at the Trump case

very carefully and under a microscope

because for obvious reasons,

but it is quite loud here.

But obviously,

Ron Rashawn

for 15 years has handled

difficult defendants before,

and they're dealt with defendants

who have acted out in courtrooms.

Defendants who are alleged

murderers, rapists.

This is what we do.

It is the landscape in which we toil.

So I don't think this is

a huge lift for Juan Mershon,

for Judge Mershon.

I do think, however, that

if it were me, certainly

I would warn the defendant.

Again, doing a contempt proceeding

at this point will slow everything down.

It doesn't really benefit anyone.

I have to get your perspective

on something that that also Trump

has just been arguing

that he wants to do,

which is

when there are those sidebars

between the judge and the prosecutors

and Trump's defense team.

Trump wants to be able

to approach the bench.

How unusual is that?

That's entirely unusual.

I would never allow it.

The defendant

in any criminal case

is entitled to hear

any of those sidebar conversations

if they involve issues for which

the defendant could give input.

So if it's strictly legal,

the defendant has no right to be there.

But if it's anything

with a factual basis,

the defendant does have a right

to be there.

And logistically,

I think that's a challenge

for a Judge Mershon

to make sure that the defendant

has that opportunity,

if it means clearing the courtroom

or going in the back, as we often do.

Logistically, again, it's hard here

because you have Secret Service, you have

court officers

and a lot of lawyers.

So that

makes it a little more complicated.

What happened right before this

this break happened?

And I should note just

you were mentioning how loud it is here.

I mean,

it is

kind of a circus down here,

a really the most generous way

to describe it.

It's always a little bit crazy

that I've spent a lot of time down here

today. Feels especially more so.

I mean,

some of his former supporters

are just circling the courthouse really

as he is inside.

He just left without speaking.

But one thing the judge was just doing

was reading Trump, his rights

and telling him that

if he disrupt this trial,

that the judge has the right

to exclude him

and even potentially jail him

if that happens.

What we have to

what's the threshold

for something like that?

Well, that's a good question.

Every defendant has a right

to be present at their own trial.

That right is fundamental,

but it is not absolute.

In other words,

if a defendant, by their conduct,

cannot follow the rules of the courtroom,

cannot follow the rules of the staff

in the courtroom,

speaks out over the judge

that a defendant can forfeit their

right to be present.

And if the defendant continues to

do that,

I would say he would find

himself in a bit of an a bit of trouble.

Judge Mershon

is not going to tolerate it.

He is a consummate professional.

He is a fair and just jurist.

And he will do everything he can

to ensure

that the defendant

gets a fair trial

to which he is entitled.

And if that includes

taking him out of the courtroom

because he

you know,

he destroys the process or infects it

deleterious, Lee, he will do that.

And warning

the defendant is the only standard.

If the defendant knows and persists,

he can be waltz out

not to return he can be jailed, too.

We'll see if that happens.

How would you describe

how Judge Marshawn is in the courtroom?

You know, if you're

we don't have cameras in there,

so we can't actually

see what it looks like.

We just in sketches, pictures.

We get our dispatches from our team.

How does that

would you describe it

to someone who's sitting at home

and is curious

what it's actually like in the room

I would say that is

it's probably

not quite the

circus in there that it is out here.

There's a certain amount of decorum

that's required

There's a lot of people in that courtroom

and a lot of static, I'm sure.

But when the judge is on the bench

and speaking,

everyone needs to

take notice and pay attention.

When the jurors walk in,

they will show the appropriate respect

for the courtroom.

Everyone needs to do that.

It's much like something

that you would see on TV that's very,

you know, a

lot of people in the jury box,

a lot of people in the courtroom

and everyone in their position.

Judge Mershon is not a hothead.

He's not a screamer.

He is, as I said, a professional.

He takes this very seriously.

I don't think he's going

home, losing

sleep at night over this case.

I just don't

I'm sure he's focused on it

because there's a lot of work involved

and a lot of scrutiny.

But he handles a lot tougher defense.

Yeah, I have confidence in him.

The Trump team tried to get him

bounced from this

because he said it was intense

preparation.

Clearly,

we all know that that is one thing

that everyone can agree on.

Judge Conrad's are great to have you

joining us here outside the courthouse.

This is so important is now

because this is

this is way

we were talking about before about

what's going to happen with this judge,

the gag order.

This is before a jury is impaneled.

They're obviously on top of mind.

About what impact it could have on them.

Will they be threatened

or will they be intimidated

in some way or insulted?

This is one of the first moments of truth

for Judge Mershon, who,

of course, will be front and center

throughout this trial.

Now, Judge Mershon was a prosecutor

long ago in his career.

He's been a judge in New York

for 17 years now.

He's generally quite widely respected.

He's described by people

who've appeared in front of him

as efficient and fair

and in charge of his courtroom.

Now, before this, he was known.

Yeah, he is not unknown,

nor are they unknown to him,

presided over

a trial of the Trump

Organization for Tax Fraud,

separate issue,

but he knows a lot of the players here,

and he presided over the prosecution

of Allen Weisselberg,

who pled guilty in that case.

Now, of course,

the judge as recently as this morning

has denied various motions

by Donald Trump

to recuse himself,

to remove himself

off the case based on his daughter's

political activity.

And as you said,

the judge has issued this limited

gag order

that Donald Trump

we discussed at the beginning of the show

appears to have violated

over the weekend.

And now the D.A.

is asking the judge

to take action on that.

One thing that is a possibility

for the average defendant.

If you violate the orders of release

or of course, a gag order

could be a step back.

Not likely to happen here at all.

Yeah, he's

not going to get locked up for that back,

but he may get he may get fined.

Let's see, that's

now we have the defense, though,

and who's on this team?

This is important.

They're they're making these motions.

You've worked with Todd Blanchard.

Todd Blanton was a colleague of mine

for several years, federal prosecutor

in the Southern District of New York.

He was in charge

of the violent crimes unit,

very experienced trial lawyer.

This is a challenge

unlike one he's seen before.

And he'll be aided by Susan Nichols,

who is a very experience,

also long ago a prosecutor,

but a very well-known, very respected

defense lawyer, by the way.

Put aside

your notions of the sort of flamboyant

Trump lawyers of the past.

This is no Rudy.

This is no Sidney Powell.

They're both experienced

courtroom operators.

They're tacticians.

Todd,

if anything is soft spoken,

it's sort of understated.

So he doesn't fit

the classic mold of the Trump

defense attorney.

Remind people, though, in terms of

who is going to lead

in the sense of does

Trump direct his attorneys

or do the attorneys

direct them on

issues, a fact or legal strategy

Well, we say attorneys can only advise.

Right. You can't for.

So that will be a dynamic

that will be watching throughout.

We'll talk about who's

actually going to prosecute this case.

Obviously, Alvin Bragg is a D.A.

He himself will not argue this case,

which is very typical. Yeah.

Just to show you

what a small world that is.

I also worked with Alvin Bragg

at the Southern District of New York, as

did Todd Blanch. So they know each other.

They were colleagues before

Alvin Bragg is the district attorney

took office in early 20, 22.

He will not be trying

the case will probably show up

in the courtroom to support his team.

His team is extraordinarily experienced

in the courtroom.

Susan Hopfinger,

will be leading the charge

for the DA's office.

She has been in that office

for over 25 years.

Tried many,

many cases

that Michelangelo,

though, has been an issue for this

Trump team.

Yet when you hear

Donald Trump wrongly

say this is a Biden prosecution,

what he's pointing to,

and it's an incredibly weak argument

is that Matthew Colangelo was at DOJ

a few years ago,

but there is no evidence,

no known connection

between the Biden administration

in this case.