Former Trump White House lawyer Ty Cobb said his former boss could soon end up in jail over “off the rails” rhetoric regarding his New York business fraud trial and other cases.
In the New York case, Trump and his legal team are subject to a limited gag order that forbids them from disparaging the court or talking about witnesses in public. However, Trump has routinely disregarded the directive. On Tuesday, for example, he reposted a message demanding Judge Arthur Engoron and the prosecutor in one of his criminal cases be placed under “citizen’s arrest.”
“It’s much like what he did on Jan. 6. It continues to be off the rails in terms of the extent to which his invective infects these proceedings and is the potential to intimidate witnesses,” Cobb said in a CNN interview Tuesday.
“I believe that, you know, at some point, comments like this will result in Trump not only being sanctioned,” he continued. “But at some point, these types of comments will result in him being put in jail pending some of these trials.
A second gag order in his Washington election fraud criminal trial has been paused pending an appeal.
Cobb claimed that Trump’s “petty dictator-type talk” “diminishes” the United States’ standing and Trump’s legacy while jeopardising the legal system and the fairness of his own prosecutions.
Trump has previously been fined $15,000 by Engoron for breaking the gag order, particularly for making remarks that disparage court workers.
Prosecutors said during that trial that Trump and his grown sons had falsified the worth of their company’s assets to obtain better loan and insurance conditions. In addition to a $250 million damages claim, they want the former president to be prohibited from running enterprises in New York.
This week, his legal team will present their case defence, and it is anticipated that they will want a mistrial.
