New York officials are evaluating the need 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”.
r Trump launched a verbal attack on Judge Juan Merchan on Tuesday night, 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 porn star Stormy Daniels, Mr Trump called Justice Merchan a “Trump-hating judge with a Trump-hating wife and family whose daughter worked for Kamala Harris”.
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.
A spokesman for the New York court system said yesterday: “We continue to evaluate security concerns and threats. We have maintained an increased security presence in and around courthouses and throughout the judiciary and will adjust protocols as necessary.”
Mr 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.
Mr Trump has warned of “potential death and destruction” resulting from the criminal charges against him, called Mr Bragg an “animal” backed by George Soros, the 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 Mr Trump’s remarks on the case may turn Colombian-born Judge Merchan (60) into “public enemy number one”.
On pro-Trump extremist forums, users have been lamenting the charges against the former president and some even vowed revenge.
On the website where much of the planning for the January 6, 2021, attack on the 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 incendiary post made by Mr Trump of the former president holding a baseball bat close to a picture of Mr Bragg.
Joe Tacopina, Mr Trump’s attorney, offered a different characterisation of the post yesterday, saying: “He wasn’t swinging a baseball bat at anyone’s head. Someone else put a picture of the district attorney next to him.”
Reports suggested the “Meet Our Team” page was removed from Mr Bragg’s website this week, over concerns of identifying staff as threats against the office mounted.
Mr Tacopina claimed his client’s comments were protected under his First Amendment right to free speech.
He said: “President Trump heard the judge, he’s not done anything to try to incite violence... clearly yesterday was an insane scene outside but there was no violence. He didn’t call for violence.”
When asked about comments the former president made about the judge’s family, Mr Tacopina told NBC: “It’s not an attack on the judge or certainly his family,” referring to media reports that the judge’s daughter Loren (34) works for consulting firm Authentic Campaigns, which counts Ms Harris among its past clients.
Several officials involved in the case are already assigned security details.