Former President Donald Trump says it would be his “great honor” to be jailed for violating the gag order in his Manhattan hush-money trial — comparing himself to late anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela.
“If this Partisan Hack wants to put me in the ‘clink’ for speaking the open and obvious TRUTH, I will gladly become a Modern Day Nelson Mandela – It will be my GREAT HONOR,” Trump said Saturday of Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan, who recently expanded a gag order to stop Trump, 77, from attacking the family of those involved in the case.
“We have to Save our Country from these Political Operatives masquerading as Prosecutors and Judges, and I am willing to sacrifice my Freedom for that worthy cause,” Trump added.
He previously compared himself to Mandela — who became a worldwide symbol of resistance against racism and eventually South Africa’s president after spending 27 years in prison fighting apartheid — in 2023 over charges he tried to thwart the 2020 election.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s hush-money case against Trump is now slated to be the first of his four criminal cases to head to trial and will be the first-ever criminal proceeding involving a former US president. The trial begins April 15.
Trump stands accused of 34 felony counts for allegedly covering up $130,000 in “hush money” payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.
In his weekend post, Trump also falsely claimed that Merchan was silencing him altogether, breaking the First Amendment. However, the judge’s gag order only bars the once-again presidential candidate from publicly bashing witnesses, prosecutors, court staff, jurors and their families in his upcoming trial.
“Such inflammatory, extrajudicial statements undoubtedly risk impeding the orderly administration of this court,” Merchan wrote. “Given that the eve of trial is now upon us, it is without question that the imminency of the risk of harm is now paramount.”
Merchan also cited Trump’s extensive history of ripping prosecutors, court staff and even people sitting on secret grand juries with “threatening” barbs in press conferences and on social media.
Trump’s camp has launched a bid to delay the trial by removing Merchan from the case. The former president’s lawyers Friday urged the judge to recuse himself, citing the jurist’s daughter’s marketing work for prominent Democrats.
The judge’s daughter, Loren Merchan, has a “direct financial interest” in the case because of her work at the consulting firm Authentic Campaigns for Trump foes including Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the lead prosecutor in the former president’s first impeachment trial, Trump’s lawyers argued.
Merchan previously denied similar Trump allegations about his daughter’s job in August 2023, saying there was no evidence to “suggest that the outcome of the case could have any effect on the judge’s relative, the relative’s business, or any of their interests.”
