Trump Accused of Threatening Judge, Family

Given the opportunity to defend himself against 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, former President Trump delivered "a greatest hits of his witch-hunt grievances interwoven with his dark take on how the country is 'going to hell' without him," writes Michelle Cottle of the New York Times' editorial board, adding "the address was impressively offensive in its attacks on the justice system in general and the individuals leading the investigations of Mr. Trump in particular—as well as their families." Indeed, hours after Acting New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan warned Trump not to incite violence or threats against any officials, the former president seemed to ignore that advice.

• Merchan was told about several of Trump's social media posts. One of those posts, from March 23, showed Trump holding a baseball bat next to a photo of Bragg, Newsweek reports. In another post, Trump warned of "death & destruction" if he were charged, per Bloomberg.
• At Trump's arraignment Tuesday, Merchan told the former president not to engage in behavior with the "potential to incite violence, create civil unrest, or jeopardize the safety or well-being of any individuals."
• Hours later in his speech at Mar-a-Lago, Trump said: "I have a Trump-hating judge with a Trump-hating wife and family whose daughter worked for [Vice President] Kamala Harris and now receives money from the Biden-Harris campaign," per Newsweek.

• According to Newsweek, Merchan's daughter Loren is president of Authentic Campaigns, "an agency that has worked with President Joe Biden, Harris, and other Democrats. However, this is not considered a conflict of interest for the judge."
• Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accused Trump of "publicly intimidating a judge." "He knows what he's doing," she tweeted. She accused Donald Trump Jr. of much the same thing after he posted a photo of Merchan's daughter. "Because nothing says 'innocent' like threatening a judge's family," she wrote.
• "This is appalling," former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann told MSNBC of Trump's behavior, per Mediaite. "You do not have this behavior from a mob boss ... It's bad business to do that."
• But "he is not going after the judge," according to Trump lawyer Susan Necheles. "He commented that he thought there were some issues that he thought may cause a conflict. That's not going after the judge," Necheles said, per Newsweek.
• Trump also targeted Bragg. "The criminal is the district attorney because he illegally leaked massive amounts of grand jury information,” he said, before calling out Bragg's wife's tweets about the case, per the Independent.

(More Donald Trump stories.)