{"id":63347,"date":"2023-04-01T02:13:33","date_gmt":"2023-04-01T02:13:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=63347"},"modified":"2023-04-01T02:13:33","modified_gmt":"2023-04-01T02:13:33","slug":"the-judge-already-hates-me-says-combative-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=63347","title":{"rendered":"The judge already hates me, says \u2018combative\u2019 Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former president is not expected to be handcuffed next week, with his lawyer saying the DA\u2019s office won’t want trial to \u2018become a circus\u2019<\/p>\n

Donald Trump said the judge presiding over his case \u201chates him\u201d in an angry tirade directed at\u00a0criminal charges being brought\u00a0against him.<\/p>\n

The former president will face\u00a0some 30 charges\u00a0relating to business fraud arising from a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 election.<\/p>\n

On Friday, he attacked the judge he will appear before, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan.<\/p>\n

He is the same judge who presided over a prosecution last year of Mr Trump\u2019s business\u00a0on tax fraud charges, which led to a $1.61 million (\u00a31.3 million) penalty. Mr Trump himself was not charged in that case.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Judge Juan Merchan, a Supreme Court Justice.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mr Trump wrote: \u201cThe Judge \u2018assigned\u201d to my Witch Hunt Case, a \u2018Case\u2019 that has NEVER BEEN CHARGED BEFORE, HATES ME.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former president went on to claim that the judge had \u201ctreated my companies VICIOUSLY\u201d in the previous case.<\/p>\n

Judge Juan Merchan, a Supreme Court Justice, presided over last year’s prosecution of Mr Trump\u2019s business on tax fraud charges<\/p>\n

Mr Trump will not be handcuffed for his brief court appearance, but he is expected to have his fingerprints and mugshot taken, and it is possible \u2013 though improbable \u2013 that he will be publicly paraded in a \u201cperp walk\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The former president had, in the days leading up to the indictment, reportedly joked with friends that he would be put in \u201cgolden handcuffs\u201d.<\/p>\n

Following the indictment Ms Daniels joked that \u201c[I] don\u2019t want to spill my champagne.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe Tacopina, his lawyer, said: \u201cI don\u2019t know how all this is going to go down. There\u2019s no textbook to see how you arraign a former president of the United States in criminal court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe Tacopina offered his thoughts to Fox News host Sean Hannity<\/p>\n

Mr Trump and his team were not notified in advance and were taken by surprise when news of the indictment broke on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

Mr Tacopina said Mr Trump was initially \u201cshocked\u201d but then became \u201ccombative\u201d, and there was \u201czero \u201c chance of him making a plea deal with prosecutors.<\/p>\n

The lawyer said: \u201cHis knees don\u2019t buckle. He\u2019s now in the posture where he\u2019s ready to fight this. I am sure they will try to make sure they get some joy out of it by parading him. [But] you have Secret Service involved. I don\u2019t think they\u2019re going to allow this to become a circus.\u201d<\/p>\n

After learning of the charges, Mr Trump went to dinner at his Mar-a-Lago resort with his wife Melania and her parents, before sending out social media messages until the early hours.<\/p>\n

At the heart of the case is a $130,000 (\u00a3105,391) payment to Ms Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.<\/p>\n

Ms Daniels claimed to have had a sexual encounter with the former president in 2006, which he has repeatedly denied.<\/p>\n

Michael Cohen, Mr Trump\u2019s former lawyer, paid the money and was then reimbursed by Mr Trump himself.<\/p>\n

Cohen was later convicted of campaign finance law violations, and other offences, and jailed.<\/p>\n

He is expected to be a star witness against his one-time employer but prosecutors also have documentary evidence.<\/p>\n

Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney bringing the case against Mr Trump, was seen leaving his office amid tight security on Friday.<\/p>\n

His office accused the former president\u2019s Republican supporters in Congress of \u201ccollaborating with Mr Trump\u2019s efforts to vilify and denigrate the integrity\u201d of the investigation.<\/p>\n

It came amid reports that senior officials at the Justice Department had doubts about the strength of the case.<\/p>\n

They were said to be irritated because other legal cases against Mr Trump could have a higher chance of conviction.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump is also being investigated over his role in the US Capitol riot on Jan 6 2021 and potential election interference in Georgia.<\/p>\n

The former president claimed he was a victim of \u201cpolitical persecution\u201d by a Democrat prosecutor.<\/p>\n

With the potential for protests considered substantial, New York ordered every member of its police department to report in full uniform.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden, the current US president, repeatedly declined to comment when asked if he thought the charges were politically motivated.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI have no comment on Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Nancy Pelosi, the former Democrat House Speaker, said: \u201cNo one is above the law, and everyone has the right to a trial to prove innocence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republicans came to Mr Trump\u2019s defence, including Ron DeSantis, his chief rival for the 2024 presidential nomination, who called the charges \u201cun-American\u201d.<\/p>\n

Nikki Haley, a declared\u00a02024 candidate, said: \u201cThis is more about revenge than it is about justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u25aa\ufe0e Report and featured photo by The Telegraph (www.telegraph.co.uk)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former president is not expected to be handcuffed next week, with his lawyer saying the DA\u2019s office won’t want trial to \u2018become a circus\u2019 Donald Trump said the judge presiding over his case \u201chates him\u201d in an angry tirade directed at\u00a0criminal charges being brought\u00a0against him. The former president will face\u00a0some 30 charges\u00a0relating to business fraud […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":63349,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5787],"tags":[5714,2005,33],"class_list":["post-63347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-daniels","tag-judge","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/63349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}