Judge Juan Merchan has Donald Trump "under his thumb," a former federal prosecutor said Thursday.
Legal analyst Joyce Vance, who frequently comments on how the Trump criminal cases are being tried, highlighted the former president's gag order hearing.
Vance noted that the judge was "not impressed" with Trump's team's defense of his recent comments about the New York jury.
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"Trump commented that the 'jury was picked so fast — 95% democrats. The area's mostly all Democrat. You think of it as a — just a purely Democrat area. It's a very unfair situation that I can tell you.' Trump’s lawyers tried to argue that this wasn’t talk about an individual juror, claiming that is the focus of the gag order," the ex-prosecutor wrote. "The Judge was not impressed, reportedly shaking his head and 'looking incredulous' at this line of argument, according to Adam Klasfeld."
Vance added that Trump's attorneys are already in the know here.
"All of these lawyers know that with virtually any judge, public comments about the jury while the case is in progress are off-limits. But the Judge’s goal here isn’t to put Trump in jail, it’s to ensure a fair and impartial trial that leads to a jury verdict that, if it’s a conviction, will be affirmed on appeal," Vance wrote. "So, from the Judge’s perspective, today’s proceeding was a win. He’s got Trump under his thumb."
She added, "Trump, or at least his lawyers, seem to know that. They came back to the court with a request for clarification about whether reposting articles by legal experts that criticize the prosecution’s case and mention prosecutors or jurors would be acceptable. 'I’m not going to be in the position of looking at posts and determining in advance whether you should or should not post,' Judge Merchan told Trump’s lawyer. He said he thought the order itself was clear."