‘Drunk On His Own Power’: Megyn Kelly, Jonathan Turley Tear Into Judge’s ‘Throttle Control’ On Trump’s Speech

Megyn Kelly and Jonathan Turley criticized Judge Juan Merchan’s “throttle control” over presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s speech Tuesday on “The Megyn Kelly Show.”

New York’s highest court declined on June 18 to hear Trump’s appeal to the gag order in his Manhattan case. Kelly slammed the prosecution for leaving Trump gagged “indefinitely” through the debates and potentially the entire 2024 election cycle.

“Even in the New York case, they’re arguing that Trump should remain gagged, I guess, indefinitely through dependency of his appeal. So, that would take us all the way easily through the debates and the election,” Kelly said. “He has to just be quiet about the jury. He can’t come out now like any normal defendant and say, ‘The jury was biased against me.’ You’re not allowed because you’re Trump.”

“Yeah, I mean, think of the implications of that,” Turley said. “You have this single judge sitting in Manhattan with a throttle control over what the leading presidential candidate can speak in the election. He’s keeping a gag order after the verdict is in, the jury is out, and we’re just awaiting sentencing. So, there is no justification for the gag order. But he’s just using it now gratuitously to silence this presidential candidate. That’s what we’ve become.”

“It’s ridiculous. It is basically gagging a presidential candidate for talking about an entire department of the government.” @JonathanTurley on lawfare against Trump continuing as Jack Smith tries to keep him from speaking.

Watch below, and subscribe: https://t.co/Y12z2uKGMb pic.twitter.com/7QYJcbf8lv

— The Megyn Kelly Show (@MegynKellyShow) June 24, 2024

A jury convicted Trump on May 30 of all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Throughout the trial, Judge Merchan found Trump in violation of the gag order 10 times. Every time, the Republican candidate was charged with a $1,000 fine per violation and threatened with jail time for future offenses. (RELATED: ‘Greatest Fundraising Bonanza Ever’: Andrew Cuomo Points To Effect Trump’s New York Trial Has On 2024 Race)

Turley said most legal analysts have not spoken out against the “abuse” of Trump’s gag order because they fear retaliation.

“As a legal analyst, you can’t say anything that might be deemed as positive to Trump,” Turley said. “So, they’re watching this abuse occur in Manhattan and they’re not saying a thing,”

“That’s what we’ve had in higher education,” Turley added. “Many faculty have written me recently about, they’re being attacked because of the Gaza Palestinian protests. But these same academics have been silent for 20 years as their colleagues have been fired and investigated. And suddenly they’re discovering the value of free speech. You have to, unfortunately, somebody has to peruse you before you realize the importance of the rule of law.”

Kelly said Democrats on MSNBC and CNN are “salivating every day” because Trump could “get in trouble on appeal” regarding the gag order.

“That’s what you have, a man drunk on his own power,” Kelly said of Judge Merchan.

Turley agreed, telling Kelly that “there’s no reason” for Trump’s gag order to remain in place. The GWU law professor mentioned that the gag order prevents Trump from talking about Michael Colangelo, a former top official in the Biden Department of Justice (DOJ). Colangelo jumped ship from his two years as acting associate attorney general in the DOJ to a lower position at the Manhattan District Attorney’s office as senior counsel in 2022.