Fox News legal analyst Jonathan Turley said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s hush money case against former President Donald Trump is “weak.”
Bragg indicted Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records to pay former porn actress Stormy Daniel $130,000 to remain silent about their alleged extramarital affair ahead of the 2016 election. Acting New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the trial, expanded a gag order on Trump after he had criticized the judge and his daughter in a series of Truth Social posts.
“The optics are horrendous,” Turley told Fox News’ Dana Perino on Wednesday. “I mean, this is a very weak case. In my view, it is a weaponization of the system, and now you have these gag orders flying right before an election that could turn on the weaponization of the criminal justice system. So this could not be worse for our country and I think these judges have gone too far with some of these orders.”
Trump’s legal team requested the judge recuse himself from the case over his daughter’s work at Authentic Campaigns, a political firm that worked with President Joe Biden’s campaign in 2020, NBC News reported. Turley said the recusal is unlikely to occur, given that the actions of adult children do not usually apply to a legal case. (RELATED: ‘Not Allowed To Respond’: Turley Blasts Gag Order, Says Witness ‘Campaigning’ Against Trump)
“But with two weeks to go, it’d probably be easier to move the courthouse than the judge in this case and the reason is that they are very reluctant unless you have something quite direct and certainly unassailable, we don’t know what they have. But generally the acts of an adult child do not prove determinative for these types of motions. That once this child is an adult, then their actions are not attributed to those of the judge or vice versa,” Turley said.
The political left has called on Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from cases connected to the 2020 election over text messages sent by his wife, Ginni, to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows over alleged election fraud during the 2020 presidential election.
Bragg asked the judge to “clarify or extend” his gag order against Trump Tuesday to protect his family members.
“To the extent that the original March 26 Order did not already prohibit this behavior, this Court can and should clarify or extend the Order to protect family members of the Court on the record described below, and should warn defendant that any future disregard of the Order will result in sanctions,” Bragg’s filing states.
“This Court should immediately make clear that defendant is prohibited from making or directing others to make public statements about family members of the Court, the District Attorney, and all other individuals mentioned in the Order,” Bragg continued.
Merchan set the trial to begin April 15 with jury selection.