Donald Trump has unhinged meltdown about Michael Cohen, gives something away
In spite of what the headlines like to claim, Donald Trump has a long and consistent habit of not violating his gag orders. He actually tends to cower in the face of gag orders, for fear of being locked up. Instead he says inappropriately aggressive things about topics and people not covered by the gag order, in the hope of distracting everyone from the fact that he’s sheepishly complying with the gag order.
So it’s notable that Trump did appear to violate his New York criminal trial gag order today, when he went on an unhinged rant about Michael Cohen and Mark Pomerantz. Trump knows that Cohen will certainly be a witness for the prosecution, yet Trump is gagged from attacking witnesses.
So what happens now? Prosecutor Alvin Bragg will likely put Trump’s words in front of the judge on Monday, and the judge will have to make a decision about whether this post violates the gag order, and how to deal with it. Keep in mind that enforcement of a gag order is a judgment call on the part of the judge. If the trial judge doesn’t see this post as a gag order violation, then it doesn’t matter if you or I do.
But the real story here is that Trump is giving away that he’s very much afraid of Michael Cohen’s upcoming testimony against him. Otherwise Trump wouldn’t be risking a gag order violation in a silly effort at intimidating Cohen. In any case we already know that Cohen isn’t going to be intimidated, which means Trump is just flailing.
