Donald Trump's allies have been packing the New York City courtroom where he's standing trial — and speaking out in his defense in statements that come close to violating the gag order imposed on him
And an onlooker reported Tuesday Trump appears to be very much in control of what they're saying.
In recent days political big guns including Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum have given impassioned speeches outside the courtroom parroting Trump's accusation of a political witch hunt and attacking witnesses and the judge's family members.
Trump is forbidden from speaking about witnesses, jurors, court staff or their families under a gag order — though it also forbids him asking others to do it on his behalf.
New York Magazine's Andrew Rice, appearing on MSNBC's "Alex Wagner Tonight," said he spotted Trump rewriting and editing lines that would be spoken by the handful of notable guests who made the pilgrimage to the court, where he's on trial for falsifying business records.
"I could actually look over Trump's shoulder and see what he was reading, and he's reading the quotes that these individuals, and going through and making notations with a pen on the paper, he said.
"While testimony was going on, while Michael Cohen was testifying against him. He was actually going through and annotating and editing the quotes that these people were giving."
"They are doing this intentionally to keep him here and keep him off of the campaign trail," said Johnson.
The speaker also sounded off on Judge Juan Merchan's daughter, a political consultant serving various Democratic candidates, accusing her of “making millions of dollars doing online fundraising for Democrats.”
Vice-presidential hopefuls Burgum and Vance made similar statements.
Burgum echoed Trump calling the trials gag order pure "election interference."
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He added: "I think one thing that we've all known is this was a sham trial, but when you have an opportunity to see it up close and personal, you can see it's actually a scam trial."
"I think the only conclusion, of course, is its election interference, and it's tying up the president for being out on the campaign trail."
Former presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy pledged his support of Trump even if he is found guilty.
"I am ashamed as an American citizen to sit here in a courtroom watching the former leader of the free world, and let's be honest, likely next leader of the free world, sitting with the indignity in this dingy third rate courtroom," Ramaswamy
Vance also took potshots at Cohen, asking: "Does any reasonable, sensible person believe anything that Michael Cohen says?”
Then it was Sen. Tommy Tuberville's (R-AL) turn. He attacked Cohen’s testimony as “an acting scene” and accused him of being a “serial liar.”
Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 charges that he falsified business records to keep from the public details of a sexual relationship in order to manipulate the results of the 2016 campaign.
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