He retired just last week and died Thursday. Safer's first season as a regular 60 Minutes correspondent began in 1970 with a story about the training of U.S. Sky Marshals. His final 60 Minutes report - number 919 - a profile of Danish Architect Bjarke Ingels, was broadcast in March. "After more than 50 years of…
Donald Trump on Wednesday struck out at jurors in his criminal case over alleged hush money payments and falsification of business records, leaving the internet to speculate about what will happen next.
Trump earlier in the day quoted Fox News host Jesse Watters' apparent attack against "lying" jurors. Legal professionals suggested it was a clear violation of the gag order, and speculated that the judge will likely agree with the prosecutors' perspective on that topic.
Social media users also chimed in on what it means.
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Huffington Post reporter S.V. Date said, "Looks like someone's itching to check out Rikers for a bit."
"Trump shares conspiracy theory about his jury," said the popular "Patriot Takes" account.
@anyonewantchips wrote, "Trump just violated his gag order again by posting an attack on the jury. Time for Judge Merchan to lock him up."
On the other side, Trump loyalist Tom Fitton had this to say about the post:
"Trump raises questions about corruption in the jury selection process," he wrote Wednesday.
Legal analyst and MSNBC host Katie Phang didn't hold back in her analysis, suggesting the former president tried to get around the gag order but ended up stepping in a trap instead.
"By 'reposting' or 'retyping' or 'quoting' those lies by Jess Watters, Trump thinks he's too clever by half," she wrote Wednesday evening. "He's in for a rude awakening."
She then added, "He has violated the expanded gag order."
Donald Trump will likely blame his latest jury attacks on the fact that he was merely quoting someone else, but that's not going to hold up before the judge in the former president's criminal case alleging hush money and a transactional cover-up, a legal expert said Wednesday.
Trump earlier in the day posted a purported quote from a Fox News host, Jesse Watters, suggesting the jurors are lying to the judge in order to be placed on the case. Those comments had one former judge saying Trump was "dancing on the line" when it comes to his expanded gag order.
Legal analyst and former prosecutor Renato Mariotti appeared on CNN on Wednesday to give his take on the jury attack.
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For Mariotti, he says Trump is likely going to claim that he was merely quoting someone else. But he will have a difficult time making that argument, since the post wasn't shared directly, and was instead typed out, either by Trump or someone else in control of the ex-president's Truth Social account, Mariotti said.
"In other words, you are endorsing or approving the statement adopting the statement of Jesse Watters," he said. "I think that's how the D.A. is going to argue it tomorrow -- the D.A.'s team -- and I think the judge is likely to agree."
How many strikes will New York Judge Juan Merchan permit until he turns the screws on defendant Donald Trump's suspected violation of a gag order?
Ret. Judge Jill Konviser, who served on the benches in both Manhattan and Brooklyn courts, suggested former President Donald Trump has been treated with kid gloves compared to others accused of crimes.
"I think he's given an amazing amount of leeway and in that sense, you know we hear Trump talking about him being treated differently," she said during an appearance on CNN, regarding Merchan's patience and tolerance with Trump after two days of trial. "He's getting a benefit here because the judge is not holding his feet to the fire."
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Konviser believes Merchan is trying to be even handed "to move this case forward" and because he "doesn't want any more stops."
She suspects the clock is ever present for Merchan and so he "wants to get it over with."
Prosecutors for District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office are angling to hit Trump with $1,000 sanctions for each of the three gag order violations they say Trump is responsible for.
But Konviser believes Trump has been going too far.
In fact, on Wednesday Trump quoted on Truth Social Fox News anchor Jesse Watters who said: “They are catching undercover Liberal Activists lying to the Judge in order to get on the Trump Jury."
This particular post for Konviser is hard to not see as a violation.
She said that Trump is "dancing on the line crossing the line" to add to his "tango lesson" last week with previous posts.
"So I think the judge would be well within his rights to make that call now," she said, noting that Merchan has to be prudent to prevent a mistrial. "But what does it get him at the end of the day, we still want to get through this as quickly as possible."
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