Donald Trump has used social media to issue a number of veiled threats. Photo / AP
Donald Trump has used social media to issue a number of veiled threats. Photo / AP
New York officials are assessing whether to strengthen security for the judge assigned to Donald Trump’s hush-money case after the former president’s supporters labelled him an “enemy of the people”.
Trump launched a verbal attack on Judge Juan Merchan, hours after the justice warned the former president against rhetoric “likely to incite violence or public unrest”.
Speaking from his Florida home, hours after his arraignment on criminal charges relating to alleged payments made to Stormy Daniels, Trump called Judge Merchan a “Trump-hating judge with a Trump-hating wife and family whose daughter worked for Kamala Harris”.
Media reports have stated that the judge’s 34-year-old daughter Loren works for consulting firm Authentic Campaigns, which counts Harris among its past clients.
The judge, a former prosecutor with 16 years on the bench, had explicitly warned the 76-year-old presidential candidate, during his arraignment hearing, against making such comments or risk a gag order.
“We continue to evaluate and re-evaluate security concerns and potential threats,” a New York court system spokesman told The Telegraph.
“We have maintained an increased security presence in and around courthouses and throughout the judiciary and will adjust protocols as necessary.”
Trump has spent the past few weeks posting veiled threats on his social media pages against Justice Merchan, as well as Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who is leading the investigation in New York.
Trump has warned of “potential death and destruction” resulting from the criminal charges against him, called Bragg an “animal” backed by George Soros, the Jewish financier, and suggested that Judge Merchan, who also oversaw the tax fraud trial of the Trump family business, “hates” him.
Officials have privately expressed fears that Trump’s comments on the case may turn Colombian-born Judge Merchan, 60, into “public enemy number one”.
Donald Trump has used social media to issue a number of veiled threats. Photo / AP
On pro-Trump extremist forums, users have been lamenting the charges against the former president and some have even vowed revenge.
On the website where much of the planning for January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol unfolded, one user wrote: “The Left owns this judge. He’s an enemy of the people. Everyone involved should be hanged for treason”.
Prosecutors during Tuesday’s hearing detailed to the court one particularly incendiary post made by Trump of the former president holding a baseball bat close to a picture of Bragg.
‘He wasn’t swinging a baseball bat at anyone’s head’
Joe Tacopina, Trump’s attorney, offered a different characterisation of the post on Wednesday, saying: “He wasn’t swinging a baseball bat at anyone’s head. Someone else put a picture of the district attorney next to him”.
He claimed his client’s comments were protected under his First Amendment right to free speech.
“President Trump heard the judge, he’s not done anything to try to incite violence,” said Tacopina.
“Clearly yesterday was an insane scene outside but there was no violence. He didn’t call for violence. He didn’t call for anything.”
When asked about comments the former president made about the judge’s family, Tacopina told NBC: “It’s not an attack on the judge or certainly his family.
“No one is suggesting that anything should happen to the judge or his family and President Trump’s comments did not, in any way shape or form, incite violence against the judge or anyone else.”
New York spent an estimated $200 million (NZ$316 million) on securing the city for Trump’s 45-minute arraignment at Manhattan Criminal Court. Manhattan streets were closed for much of Monday and Tuesday and NYPD officers escorted Trump’s motorcade, as it travelled to and from the courthouse.
Several officials involved in the case, including Bragg, are already assigned security details.
Reports suggested the “Meet Our Team” page was removed from Bragg’s website this week, amid concerns over identifying staff as threats against the office mounted.
