How long will it last?
In case you missed it, the twice impeached, four times indicted and soon to be four times arrested CAPS LOCK creep has finally been seriously gagged. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee approved the bond agreement on Monday, according to court filings. The judge set a bail bond of a measly and pathetic $200,000, but to somewhat make up for it, he gagged Trump from any more hate speech.
Trump is barred from making any “direct or indirect threat” against witnesses or others involved in the case. The order reads like boilerplate. It says in part, “The Defendant shall perform no act to intimidate any person known to him or her to be codefendant or witness in this case or to otherwise obstruct the administration of justice.” It further specifies that Trump cannot communicate with any witness or codefendant about the facts of the case except through his legal counsel. The terms of the agreement pertain not only to in-person dealings but also to “posts on social media or reposts.”
So how long will it last? I’m guessing about fifteen minutes. Am I being generous? Perhaps. But Trump isn’t used to being told what to do, and he is not going to take any such injunction seriously because he knows it will make him look weak in front of his macho MAGA base. After all, it’s essential to take unnecessary, stupid chances with your life, your freedom and the welfare of others in the phoney world of cosplaying like a “real man.”
Besides, Trump has no self control, nor has he ever suffered any real consequences for anything he has ever done. He is, in short, and in the latest vernacular of these strange times, going to “F” around and find out.
Interestingly, the injunction extends across all of Trump’s behaviour and in any jurisdiction. Even though the order is from Fulton County, and it was made by the judge overseeing his Georgia arraignment, Trump is not to make threats or intimidate ANY witnesses anywhere, including the ones in New York and in Washington DC. That means Trump can’t just limit his thuggish mobster rhetoric to non-Georgia victims. He has to keep his mouth shut for everyone.
Again, the bail filing says Trump can remain free pending trial so long as he doesn’t attempt to threaten or intimidate witnesses. Stop and think about that for a minute, brother and sisters. A former president of the United States was told not to threaten or intimidate witnesses against him. Sometimes it just gets too surreal to believe, yes?
But here’s the thing to think about: Trump just recorded an interview with Tucker Carlson that he plans to release in competition with the presidential debate on Monday, because that’s the kind of chickenshit little weasel that he is. But what if the interview includes witness threats and intimidations? What will happen then?
Trump will claim that the interview occurred before the injunction was issued, but that shouldn’t matter. If it contains threats and Trump knowingly released it with the threats unexpurgated anyway, knowing in advance those threats were in violation of the court order, Trump could go to jail because he released the interview. Now wouldn’t that be something?
This week you will be able to say without fear of being contradicted that Donald Trump, a former president of the United States, is free on bail in four jurisdictions for 91 total serious criminal felony counts. All he has to do is shoot off his stupid mouth and he can go straight to jail.
I, for one, am enjoying the hell out of thinking about that. Until recently, all we had to think about that was pleasant was that Joe Biden won the 2020 election and Trump was finally out of office. Now we have so many more pleasant things to think about. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.