The judge presiding over the NY v. Trump trial in Manhattan granted former President Trump permission on Tuesday to attend his son’s high school graduation in Florida next month.
“I don’t think the May 17 date is a problem,” Judge Juan Merchan told the court Tuesday morning of Barron Trump’s graduation date.
Trump had pushed for weeks to attend his son’s high school graduation on May 17, but a decision on the matter was left in limbo until Tuesday, with Trump speculating earlier this month that he would be denied leaving Manhattan for the event.
“(Barron’s) a great student and he’s very proud of the fact he did so well and was looking forward for years to having his graduation with his mother and father there, and it looks like the judge isn’t going to allow me to escape this scam. It is unclear if trial proceedings will pause on May 17 or if the president will simply be absent from the courtroom that day, which falls on a Friday. It’s a scam trial,” the former president said earlier this month when the trial kicked off. Barron Trump attends a private high school near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in south Florida. Trump is currently on day nine of his ongoing trial in Manhattan, where he is facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The case has heard from three witnesses as of late Tuesday morning, including former American Media Inc. CEO and former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, former executive assistant to Trump and a senior vice president of the Trump Organization Rhona Graff, and Gary Farro, who served as senior managing director at First Republic Bank in 2016.
On Tuesday, Merchan ordered Trump to pay $9,000 in fines for violating a gag order that bans him from speaking publicly about witnesses and family members of court officials. The judge found he violated the order on nine separate occasions, with each violation resulting in a $1,000 fine.
The judge detailed in the order that if Trump carries out “continued willful violations” of the gag order, he could face “incarceratory punishment” if “necessary and appropriate.” In remarks ahead of court Tuesday morning, Trump called on Merchan to recuse himself, calling the case a “hoax” that is overseen by a “badly conflicted judge.”
“This is a hoax. This is a judge who is conflicted. Badly, badly, badly conflicted. I’ve never seen a judge so conflicted and giving us virtually no rulings,” Trump said outside the courtroom.
“I’m going to sit in the freezing cold icebox for 8 hours, 9 hours or so. They took me off the campaign trail. But the good news is my poll numbers are the highest it’s ever been. So at least we’re getting the word out. And everybody knows this trial is a scam. It’s a scam. The judge should be recused, that he should recuse himself today he should recuse himself today. And maybe he will,” Trump said. Trump has previously slammed Merchan, including railing against him on Truth Social last month, when he called on the judge to recuse himself and cited Merchan’s daughter and her work as a political consultant for Democratic politicians. “Judge Juan Merchan, who is suffering from an acute case of Trump Derangement Syndrome (whose daughter represents Crooked Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff, and other Radical Liberals, has just posted a picture of me behind bars, her obvious goal, and makes it completely impossible for me to get a fair trial) has now issued another illegal, un-American, unConstitutional ‘order,’ as he continues to try and take away my Rights,” Trump posted on Truth Social last month after he was given a gag order limiting what he could publicly say about the case.
