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Donald Trump (AP Photo/Mike Stewart), Andrew Weissmann in a March 31, 2024 MSNBC appearance (MSNBC/screengrab)
A lawyer remembered as former special counsel Robert Mueller’s top lieutenant said Sunday that while Donald Trump may not have violated a gag order in his New York hush-money trial, he may still be held accountable for sharing a video online of a supporter’s pickup truck which displayed a hog-tied President Joe Biden on its tailgate.
MSNBC legal analyst Andrew Weissmann joined Katie Phang for a Sunday segment that began with a discussion of Trump’s online posts about Acting New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan’s daughter. After taking the position that the gag order did not specifically cover the judge and his family, Weissmann said the former president may have violated his bail conditions based on the video he shared last week about the current president.
“A standard condition of being out on bail — and this applies in New York, it applies in the D.C. federal case, it applies in the Georgia state case — is that you not commit a crime while you are out on bail,” Weissmann said, before adding: “Well, you know what, threatening the president of the United States is a crime.”
The “legal and factual question” would be whether the image of Biden “bound and gagged with what appears to be a bullet hole in his head” constitutes a threat, he continued.
Phang asked if Trump has “crossed [the] line of plausible deniability” when he claims that he is merely exercising his First Amendment rights.
“That might have been plausible the first time or the second time that he did this, but when you see that you have this repeated call and response effect you can’t just keep saying ‘Oh, I just called and they responded, I was shocked,”” Weissmann said, arguing a judge could call a hearing to probe Trump’s intent. Citing Jan. 6, Weissmann maintained that Trump surely knows by now that his posts can inspire his supporters to act out violently.
More Law&Crime coverage: Federal judge defends Trump’s hush-money trial gag order, warns of ‘greater number of threats’ since Jan. 6 and says America on road to ‘tyranny’
Weissmann went further Thursday in a post on X, calling on the courts to “act” — that is, revoke Trump’s bail.
“Trump is out on bail in 4 criminal cases. He posted a photo of the president bound, gagged, and shot. Threatening a president is a federal crime and also a violation of bail release conditions,” he said. “Time for courts to act.”
BREAKING: Trump is out on bail in 4 criminal cases. He posted a photo of the president bound, gagged, and shot. Threatening a president is a federal crime and also a violation of bail release conditions. Time for courts to act.
— Andrew Weissmann (weissmann11 on Threads)🌻 (@AWeissmann_) March 30, 2024
In response, Harvard law professor emeritus Laurence Tribe said it was “unclear” if the post constituted a “true threat” under the law, namely 18 U.S. Code § 871, which makes it a crime to “knowingly and willfully” threaten a president.
Even so, the Trump critic said, the FBI should pay Trump a visit.
“In all seriousness, under existing law it’s unclear whether posting on Truth Social a picture of POTUS tied up and shot in the head in a moving truck under the present circumstances amounts to a true threat under Sec. 871,” he said. “But no question it warrants an FBI visit and a warning.”
In response to Weissmann, a spokesperson for the former president reportedly said the MSNBC legal analyst and veteran prosecutor is experiencing “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
