Trump put on notice that all his 'admissions' on social media will haunt him with the jury
Sanctions may rain down on Donald Trump in the form of fines and jail threats for potentially breaching his hush money trial gag order by his rampant social media posts and quotes — but prosecutors may also put all of them into evidence that could be used as fodder to radically sway his jury.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's prosecution team on Tuesday asked the judge to dock the former president for at least 10 posts on his social media account and campaign website that appeared as “deliberate flouting” of the court’s prohibition, and requested a $1,000 fine for each one.
Former federal prosecutor Ankush Khardori touched on the lack of pain that the fines will have on defendant Trump.
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"It appears to be to try to impose some sort of deterrent effect on him, even in a limited capacity — it doesn't seem like it would be that effective," he said. "It's not that much money."
So the prosecution can play some cards to compel Trump to quiet down, one tactic would be to withhold from the defense any of the witnesses.
Khardori said if Trump keeps it up, "they're going to stop telling [the defense] which witnesses they're calling on which days which will make it hard for his defense lawyers to prepare."
And the second tactic the prosecutors should take, according to Khardori, would be to gather together all of the slights and digs at witnesses and the jury itself and use it as proof of the president's supposed disregard for his action or those involved in meting out fair and impartial justice.
"I wouldn't be surprised if the DA's office puts all of these tweets or Truths or whatever into evidence of the trial," he said. "When Trump takes a stand or after the close of their case [prosecutors can] say, 'Look, this man was on trial!', 'Here's what he was doing while you were serving on this jury!' 'He is tweeting about people!' 'He was lying about there being a Democratic plot to take them down!' 'He was lying about you!' 'He was promoting people like Jesse Watters, who have been trying to out you!'"
"All this stuff can come in. It's all admissions."