Donald Trump paused and attempted to censor himself while speaking with reporters outside of the New York courtroom on Friday, May 10.
The embattled ex-prez held a stack of papers and was reading off excerpts of opinion pieces from conservative news network contributors including Jonathan Turley, Byron York and Miranda Devine.
"These are all stories that just came out; these are all stories that are 100% that this is a disgraceful trial," Trump told the crowd. "And I’ll be going over them with you, relating later how the left tried to do things to hurt Trump."
"I’m just going to say two things because I can’t read. Sure. Your words," he stumbled slightly. "I’m not allowed to read them. I use the words, this guy wants to put me in jail. He’s corrupt."
Later in the speech, the 77-year-old took aim at Judge Juan Merchan a second time. He claimed that when you have a "rigged judge" on a case, "very bad things" can happen.
"But that’s what I’m trying to— I’m trying to edit this very quickly in front of you, because if I mention the wrong word, they’ll come out here and they’ll take me out to the jail someplace, because that’s the way it is with this judge," Trump continued. "He wants to show how tough he is."
As OK! previously reported, the former POTUS has a gag order surrounding the high-profile hush money trial that bars him and his legal team from making public remarks about witnesses, jurors, counsel, court staff and their families throughout the court proceedings.
Judge Merchan ruled Trump violated the gag order at least 10 times and gave him a stern warning that a future violation could come withjail time. However, despite the controversial politician's claims that the judge was trying to show he was "tough," Merchan insisted he did not want to have to put Trump behind bars.
"You are the former president of the United States and possibly the next president as well," he said at the time. "The magnitude of this decision is not lost on me, but at the end of the day, I have a job to do. So as much as I don’t want to impose a jail sanction … I want you to understand that I will if necessary and appropriate."
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Journalists who witnessed the moment described him as "sitting quietly and frowning" as he sat "hunched over at the defense table." One person reported that he shook his head after the warning.
Maggie Haberman noted it was an "extremely subdued reaction" from Trump compared to his past courtroom outbursts.