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When Donald Trump was arraigned in a Washington, D.C., courthouse last week, the proceedings were not altogether normal. Most criminal defendants, for example, don’t receive Secret Service protection, and it’s generally not necessary to close down streets around the building ahead of the proceedings.
But what transpired inside the courtroom was unusual, too. After Judge Moxila Upadhyaya reviewed the conditions of release with the former president, she added some warnings that defendants don’t typically hear.
“Finally, sir, I want to remind you that it is a crime to try to influence a juror, or to threaten or attempt to bribe a witness or any other person who may have information about your case, or to retaliate against anyone for providing information about your case to the prosecution, or to otherwise obstruct the administration of justice,” the judge said.
Andrew Weissmann, a longtime Justice Department veteran and an MSNBC legal analyst, added soon after, “I was a prosecutor for 21 years, and I was a defense lawyer for five years, and I’ve never heard that.”
Nevertheless, Upadhyaya was apparently familiar enough with the defendant’s antics to make the warning. Whether the Republican fully understood the admonition is another matter entirely.
On Friday afternoon, roughly 24 hours after Trump exited a courthouse, he turned to his social media platform to deliver a new, nine-word message: “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!”
It did not go unnoticed. As Politico reported on Friday:
Prosecutors on Friday night called a judge’s attention to a social media post from Donald Trump — issued hours earlier — in which they say the former president appeared to declare that he’s “coming after” those he sees as responsible for the series of formidable legal challenges he is facing. Attorneys from special counsel Jack Smith’s team said the post from Trump “specifically or by implication” referenced those involved in his criminal case for seeking to subvert the 2020 election.
The point of the prosecutors’ court filing was to seek a protective order, which was intended to limit the former president from disclosing evidence, but Trump made their jobs easier: Prosecutors referenced Trump’s threatening online rhetoric to bolster the point about the need to impose limits on the defendant.
Early Saturday, a Trump spokesperson claimed that the Republican’s message was “in response to the RINO, China-loving, dishonest special interest groups and Super PACs.” The former president did not, however, issue any kind of clarification of his own.
Soon after, the court ordered defense counsel to respond to the Justice Department’s filing by 5 p.m. ET on Monday.
Team Trump asked for three additional days — lawyer John Lauro, who’s helping take the lead in defending the former president in this case, maintained a very high-profile media presence over the weekend, which presumably left him less time to work on legal filings — and that request was denied.
In hindsight, the Republican would’ve been better off heeding the advice of the judge who presided over his arraignment.