Judge Juan Merchan earned kudos from a former federal prosecutor this week for keeping order in his courtroom even though he has been routinely targeted with verbal vitriol about being "compromised" by a former U.S. president who is on trial.
"The judge is endlessly fair and made it clear he said, 'Look, there are carrots and sticks and this was a carrot in terms of Mr. Pecker,'" said former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann while appearing on "The Last Word" with Lawrence O'Donnell after spending Thursday inside the courtroom.
Weissmann was referring to the prosecution raising four more incidents that they say former President Donald Trump violated the terms of his gag order, after already being found to have violated it nine times causing him to pay a $9,000 fine for contempt.
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Trump had tepidly praised former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker in public and the judge didn't see any issue despite Trump being barred from saying a peep about witnesses in his criminal falsification of business records trial — which Pecker is.
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But Merchan, according to Weissmann, wasn't as amicable about another post by Trump taking aim at the jury empaneled in the case.
During one portion of discussion involving the gag order, Merchan told Trump’s counsel that Trump isn't bound to speak to reporters about witnesses and the jury.
“It was your client who went down to that holding area and stood in front of the press and started to speak,” the judge said. “It wasn’t the press that went to him. He went to the press. He didn’t need to go in that direction.”
Weissmann found that Merchan was a soft-toned leader in the courtroom and respected his poise under the duress of a sensational trial.
"You know, there are different ways that judges control the courtroom," he explained. "Some judges can't and do a poor job of it, but others are sort of screamers. Very loud voice. Lots of paraphernalia, like clerks who pound the order in the court — that kind of thing. That is not Judge Merchan. I was surprised; he is soft-spoken and he is endlessly polite and the way that courtroom is clearly his, is I think that kind of quiet respect."
Watch the video below or at this link.
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