Alvin Bragg may have just found his “in” for locking up Donald Trump
Even after Donald Trump began posting conspiracy theories about unnamed jurors on Wednesday night, Judge Merchan decided on Thursday that Trump’s gag order violation hearing will still have to wait until next week. Why is Merchan waiting? Our best guess is that he’s giving Trump time to hang himself before holding the hearing, so that Merchan can dish out whatever punishment he sees fit. In the meantime, prosecutor Alvin Bragg may have found his “in” when it comes to nailing Trump.
Bragg and his team have made a new filing detailing Trump’s additional gag order violations. They’re now pointing out that based on the timeframe, some of Trump’s offending posts may have been posted from “within this courthouse.” There are a couple reasons why this is a big deal.
First, there’s the timing. It’s bad enough for Trump to make social media posts that violate his gag order in the middle of the night. But if he’s made some of these posts from the courthouse, on breaks and such, it’s even worse for him because it would mean he’s directly thumbing his nose at the courts.
Second, by all accounts Trump doesn’t type. Instead he reportedly dictates his posts to a guy named Dan Scavino. Trump even recently admitted that Scavino is the only person with full access to Trump’s Truth Social account. So if Trump’s gag order-violating posts are being made while Trump is at the courthouse, how is that even happening? Are he and Scavino scheduling them the night before?
If so, it sets the stage for the courts to potentially drag Scavino in as a material witness in Trump’s gag order violations. Scavino would have to be truthful about how he and Trump have crafted these offending posts, or else Scavino would go down for obstruction.
So it’s worth watching where Alvin Bragg and his team are going with this. If they can drag in Scavino on this and firmly establish that Trump’s offending posts were a strategic decision to try to intimidate the targets, and not merely spontaneous outbursts in frustration, it would go a long way to convincing the judge to indeed lock Trump up during next week’s gag order violation hearing.
