'One of the reasons we went': Tuberville admits bizarre reason for attending Trump trial

14 May 2024

Former President Donald Trump may be seeking to circumvent Judge Juan Merchan's gag order by enlisting the help of willing surrogates, according to one of his supporters in the U.S. Senate.

Multiple high-profile Republicans — including some vying to be Trump's 2024 running mate — made appearances at Trump's criminal trial in Manhattan this week, expressing their support for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee while he attempts to fend off 34 felony charges. Notably, several Trump surrogates attacked people protected by Judge Merchan's gag order on Tuesday. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) publicly criticized former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, and Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Florida) went after Judge Merchan's daughter. Both witnesses and family members of court staff are included in the gag order.

In a recent interview with far-right network Newsmax, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) all but admitted that the reason he went to Manhattan this week was to help the former president do an end-run around the gag order prohibiting him from going after his intended targets.

"Hopefully, we'll have more and more senators and congressmen go up there every day to represent him, and be able to overcome this gag order," Tuberville said. "And that's one of the reasons we went, is to be able to speak our peace for President Trump."

Tuberville's remarks stunned some political observers. USA TODAY columnist Rex Rex Huppke wryly tweeted: "When you use not-smart people to break rules, they're likely to do not-smart things." Lawyer David Lurie called Tuberville "a bad co-conspirator."

The former president has repeatedly assailed the gag order, telling reporters it "has to come off," and that there's “never been anything like this in the history of our country." Though as former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade tweeted, gag orders are routine in criminal trial proceedings, and are imposed in order to preserve the integrity of the process.

Trump surrogates' attempts to allow Trump to go around Merchan's gag order ay result in further action from the judge. CNN's Kaitlan Collins reported that Merchan "looked visibly annoyed" on Tuesday when a slew of Trump surrogates walked into the courtroom in the middle of Cohen's testimony.

"Michael Cohen was in the middle of a line of questioning," Collins said, describing the scene. "You saw the judge basically stare straight at them... It seemed disruptive to the proceedings. Every time I've been there, I've never seen a large group of people come in and sit at the front of the courtroom while the witness is on the stand testifying."

The prosecution will likely rest its case by the end of the week, as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's team has said Cohen will be the last witness they call to the stand. Defense counsel Todd Blanche is expected to continue cross-examining Cohen when proceedings resume on Thursday (the trial is paused on Wednesdays so Merchan can work on the other cases he's overseeing). The court won't convene on Friday, as Merchan has given Trump the day off to attend the high school graduation of his son, Barron. Following the graduation, Trump is flying to Minnesota for a campaign fundraiser.

Watch the video of Tuberville's comments below, or byclicking this link.

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