Photo: Pool / Getty Images News / Getty Images
The hush money trial of former President Donald Trump in Manhattan has been adjourned until Thursday. But there were plenty of fireworks on Tuesday involving star prosecution witness Michael Cohen.
Defense attorney Todd Blanche grilled Michael Cohen, ex-lawyer for former President Donald Trump, about negative statements he's made online and to news media about Trump and his lawyers. Blanche, leading the cross-examination, asked Cohen if he once called Blanche a "crying little b----" on Tik Tok. Cohen replied that it "“sounds like something [he] would say."
On April 23, Cohen referred to Trump as a “dictator douche bag.” Cohen recalls saying that trump “belongs in a cage like a f------ animal” also on April 23.
Blanche asked if the the District Attorney's office has reportedly asked Cohen to stop publicly commenting about this case. Cohen says, “yes.”
Cohen says that when the DA’s office says “probably better off if you don’t speak about it” they say it in a matter that’s asking him not to speak. Cohen says that they asked him not to speak to the press less than 5 times.
Meantime, reports say that the appeal of the gag order imposed by Judge Juan Merchan has been denied.
“We find that Justice Merchan properly weighed petitioner’s First Amendment Rights against the court’s historical commitment to ensuring the fair administration of justice in criminal cases, and the right of persons related or tangentially related to the criminal proceedings from being free from threats, intimidation, harassment, and harm,” the Appellate Division wrote in its order Tuesday.
Trump's lawyers will now have the opportunity to appeal to the New York Court of Appeals.
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said, "The gag order imposed by conflicted Judge Juan Merchan in the lawless Manhattan DA case is unconstitutional and un-American.”
"The threat to throw the 45th President of the United States and the leading candidate in the 2024 presidential election in jail for exercising his First Amendment rights is a Third World authoritarian tactic typical of Crooked Joe Biden and his comrades," he added.
The former President also sat down with KTRH's Clay Travis and Buck Sexton for a wide ranging interview. You can check that out below.