Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over former President Donald Trump's business records trial in Manhattan, isn't issuing a quick decision on whether the gag order he issued in the case was violated because he wants to "jack up the dollar amount" for his fines, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Newsmax on Tuesday.
"He's going to rule against President Trump," Bondi said on "Newsline." "I don't think any of us have a doubt on that. He's ruled against him every step of the way."
Merchan on Tuesday opted to reserve his decision over whether to hold Trump in contempt of court over the alleged gag order violations, and it was not made immediately clear when he will issue his ruling, which is likely to come in writing, reported WNBC in New York City.
Prosecutors in the case claim that Trump has violated Merchan's gag order, allegedly attacking witnesses and other people connected in the case at least 10 times. They have asked the judge to fine Trump $1,000 per gag order violation, threaten Trump with jail time, and force him to pull his posts from his Truth Social platform.
Bondi told Newsmax that Merchan is "giving the prosecution all the time in the world to speak" but not giving Trump's defense team time enough to argue the gag order.
"All the rights in a criminal trial, all the majority of the rights belong to the defendant, yet the defendant, Donald Trump, is being deprived of all of his rights," Bondi said.
She further argued that Trump has "every right" to post items on his account about the witnesses, particularly former attorney Michael Cohen.
"[He] is a convicted liar," said Bondi. "He is a convicted perjurer. President Trump has every right to tweet that. This is not how our legal system is run, and that's why I think I'm so upset by it and so many lawyers are upset by it."
Bondi also pointed out that the prosecution's arguments that Trump was involved in a criminal conspiracy to hide business records concerning payouts to adult film actress Stormy Daniels is tainting the jury.
Bondi also argued that prosecutor Matthew Colangelo, a former Department of Justice prosecutor, was "air-dropped in" to take the case after others declined it.
"President Trump is not charged with conspiracy and it's a horrible case," said Bondi. "They would have had one potential misdemeanor, but they had to bootstrap that to the felonies because the statute of limitations had run on the case."
But Trump must "sit there day after day, can't attend his son's graduation, can't go to the Supreme Court rulings this week, and they're keeping him off the campaign trail when [Joe] Biden is in my home state today for two events in Tampa?" Bondi said.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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