How Many More People Need to Get Death Threats Before Trump Is Gag-Ordered?

In the weeks leading up to his indictment by a Manhattan grand jury, Donald Trump regularly and viciously attacked Alvin Bragg, the prosecutor leading the investigation into his hush money deals. Because these (often racist) attacks led to at least one death threat—and perhaps because he’s all too aware of Trump’s penchant for inciting “death and destruction”—Juan Merchan, the judge overseeing the case, warned on Tuesday that the ex-president should “refrain from making statements that are likely to incite violence and civil unrest.” Which Trump being Trump, i.e. a dangerous blowhard, promptly proceeded to ignore.

Speaking at Mar-a-Lago hours after he was charged with 34 class E felonies, the former president and current presidential candidate continued his verbal assault on the district attorney and took aim at Merchan as well. In the case of the former, Trump claimed that Bragg was a “criminal” who “illegally leaked massive amounts of grand jury information, for which he should be prosecuted.” (He also took a shot at Bragg’s wife.) As for Merchan, Trump called him a “Trump-hating judge, with a Trump-hating wife and family, whose daughter worked for Kamala Harris and now receives money from the Biden-Harris campaign—and a lot of it.” The former leader of the free world also took the opportunity to take shots at Fulton County prosecutor Fani Willis, whom he described as a “local racist Democrat district attorney in Atlanta who is doing everything in her power to indict me over an absolutely perfect phone call,” and DOJ-appointed special counsel Jack Smith, whom Trump dubbed a “lunatic.” The former commander in chief also bizarrely suggested Smith had changed his name, musing, “I wonder what it was prior to a change.”

The result? More death threats.

Per NBC News:

The judge overseeing the Trump hush money case, Juan Merchan, and his family and court in Manhattan have received unsubstantiated threats since Trump’s hearing yesterday, two sources familiar with the matter said. There have been “dozens” of such threats to the judge and his chambers recently, one official said.

Bragg and other top officials in his office also continue to receive threats, one source said. The unsubstantiated threats have been in the form of phone calls, emails, and letters.

As Axios noted on Thursday, all of this—Trump’s dangerous rhetoric and the threats it has seemingly inspired—raises a “crucial question”: What’s it going to take for Merchan to issue a gag order against Trump?

“There is no court that would want to impose a gag order on a president of the United States,” J. Michael Luttig, a former federal judge, told the outlet. He added, however, that “if the former president forces the Manhattan criminal court, the court will have no choice.” After Merchan warned on Tuesday that both prosecutors and Trump’s team should “refrain from making statements that are likely to incite violence and civil unrest,” the ex-president’s attorney insisted his client’s previous rants on Truth Social were simply a result of his being “upset” and “frustrated” with the case and not meant to cause harm. “I don’t share your view that certain language is justified by frustration,” Merchan responded.