Good Luck: Judge Orders Trump to Attend Lecture on Not Harassing Witnesses

Former President Donald Trump will have to attend a hearing specifically to be told to stop trying to intimidate witnesses.

The judge presiding over Trump’s Manhattan criminal case, on the alleged payment of hush money to Stormy Daniels, issued a protective order Monday stating that the people involved in the lawsuit are not allowed to share evidence from the case on social media. Prosecutors initially sought the order shortly after Trump was arrested, arguing he has a “long-standing history” of attacking people involved in his legal disputes.

For good measure, on Thursday, Judge Juan Manuel Merchan also scheduled a hearing for May 23, to make sure Trump understands the rules. During the virtual hearing, Merchan will go over the restrictions of the order with Trump and make clear that if the former president breaks the restrictions, he risks being held in contempt of the court.

The hearing date was set just days after Trump was found liable for sexual abuse and battery against writer E. Jean Carroll in the mid-1990s, and for defaming her when she accused him of assault decades later. He owes her $5 million in damages.

During the trial, Trump repeatedly attacked Carroll on social media, earning him multiple rebukes from the judge presiding over that case, including on the day of the verdict. The next day, Trump participated in an absurd town hall event with CNN, during which he repeatedly insulted Carroll and decried the legal process. Carroll is reportedly weighing whether to sue him for defamation again in light of his comments during the town hall.

Merchan said he was not issuing a gag order because “the last thing I want to do is infringe on [Trump’s] or anybody else’s First Amendment rights.”

Trump is facing 34 counts of business fraud in Manhattan for his alleged role in hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels. Separately, he is under investigation in Georgia for his actions following the 2020 presidential election, as well as for his role in the January 6 insurrection and for his alleged mishandling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

The right is jumping to the defense of Daniel Penny, somehow arguing that arresting someone for manslaughter is actually “pro-criminal.”

Penny surrendered to New York City authorities on Friday for a charge of second-degree manslaughter, after he was filmed placing Jordan Neely in a fatal choke hold on the subway for 15 minutes.

Since the announcement of charges against Penny, right-wing figures have advanced ludicrous and vicious ideas about it all, claiming the arrest of Penny to be unjust—the most bizarre among them being that to arrest Penny is to be pro-crime.

“It’s pro-criminal, it’s anti-hero,” Fox host Greg Gutfeld said on Thursday. “It’s time for us to get this progressive pro-crime ideology to walk the plank,” he continued, implying that Neely, the person who was strangled to death, was the real criminal.

Jack Posobiec retweeted a claim that society is now a “sinking ship” because “morally upright chads like Daniel Penny” have to submit to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (the far-right’s favorite boogeyman for Trump-related reasons).

Numerous other right-wing and conspiratorial figures, like Mike Cernovich and Collin Rugg, have stuck to a broader line of calling the killer a “good Samaritan.” They are advancing the notion—sans brain or soul—that Penny’s arrest symbolizes the state punishing an individual for being a hero and for sticking up against evil.

The continuous smearing of Neely, a man already dead, follows Fox’s previously cruel coverage of the murder: They laugh, encourage jeering, and blame the murder on anything but the actual culprit.

If there’s anything repressive or authoritarian about this case, it’s not that someone is being charged for killing. It’s our reaction to the already senseless killing of a homeless man who embodies the millions of people our society fails and leaves in the dust. Just days ago, the police arrested a journalist trying to record them violently repressing people protesting that Penny—who, again, was caught on film killing someone—had not yet faced consequences.

There are corrupt power structures to be confronted in our society; do try looking for the ones that pit you against your fellow human beings, the ones happy for you to assume the worst in others who are more like you than you realize.

Alabama Republican lawmakers have introduced a bill that would charge people who get abortions with homicide, an outrageous move that mimics similar bills in other states.

Abortion has been banned in Alabama since Roe v. Wade was overturned, with exceptions only to save the life of the pregnant person. The new bill leaves those exceptions in place.

But the measure, which was introduced in the House Tuesday, would expand the definition of “person” to state that life begins at fertilization. This would allow prosecutors to charge anyone who gets a nontherapeutic abortion with homicide.

The bill’s sponsor said that the measure was not meant to criminalize people seeking abortions but to deter people from trying to get an abortion in the first place. Classifying abortion as a homicide would significantly deter people from seeking the procedure, but it could also put their health at risk.

A study published in November by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder found that abortion bans at both the state and national level will result in significant increases in maternal mortality rates. The United States already has the highest rate of maternal mortality among developed nations, according to the World Population Review.

Frighteningly, this is not the first time that a state has tried to classify abortion as homicide. Republicans in Kentucky and Georgia introduced similar bills in February, and South Carolina Republicans introduced a bill in February that would have made getting an abortion punishable by the death penalty. All three of these bills were deemed so extreme that even other state Republicans condemned them.

These measures are also hugely unpopular among voters. The vast majority of Americans support abortion access, as they have repeatedly shown at the ballot box. But Republicans keep forging ahead with restrictions on human rights.

Elon Musk’s pick for the new Twitter CEO is perhaps as jacked-up on the conspiratorial far-right happy gas as he is.

Linda Yaccarino, the former global advertising chief for NBCUniversal and a former Trump appointee, had reportedly been in advanced talks for the role. She resigned from her role at NBC on Friday, just hours before Musk announced that she indeed would take on the job as CEO.

“Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app,” Musk tweeted, seeming to reference a new brand rehaul for Twitter.

And a cursory look through her Twitter activity reveals how complementary she would be to Musk’s regime.

The likely new Twitter CEO follows just some 1,161 accounts; among them are rabid far-right conspiracy theorists and stochastic terrorists, including Chaya Raichik, Jack Posobiec, Sidney Powell, Catturd, Ron DeSantis, and Michael Shellenberger.

Of course, who one follows on Twitter doesn’t necessarily indicate everything about them personally. Her Twitter likes, however, indicate that she does indeed like the content coming from these actors:

Outside of Twitter, in 2018, Trump appointed Yaccarino to serve a two-year term on the administration’s council of Sports Fitness and Nutrition.

At the same time, however, some far-right consumers of this conspiratorial garbage are actually alarmed by Yaccarino’s appointment, because she’s an executive chair of the World Economic Forum—something Musk himself has spread suspicion toward.

These and other users are also concerned with the fact that Yaccarino encouraged people to get Covid-19 vaccines, and even that she applauded NBCUniversal management for taking steps to pursue “social justice and equality” and for progressing toward hiring “50% of women and 50% people of color.”

Despite any concerns with Yaccarino having taken a vaccine or supporting corporate social justice causes, if she does indeed become Twitter’s next CEO, it will be with Musk’s blessing. Musk purported to be a centrist in the past, before becoming more and more reactionary in his self-made echo chamber. His fans have gladly stood by him, while he’s leeched off whatever money he can come by, mainly from the online right-wing bubble. And for many of those in the blue-check army who may be upset by Yaccarino’s appointment because she seems not far-right enough, Musk’s word is often God’s word for them anyhow—so she’ll be just fine on that end.

But alas, if her Twitter activity gives any indication of what most of her more substantive beliefs are on information and truth, Twitter more broadly will not be fine.

This post has been updated with breaking news.

CNN’s town hall with twice-impeached, criminally indicted, convicted sexual abuser Donald Trump was a glorified campaign rally, and the former president is already capitalizing on it.

Trump’s presidential campaign unveiled a new T-shirt for sale to mark the occasion, tweeting that the town hall was “so masterful that many are now saying CNN should be renamed TNN—the Trump News Network.

And the merch is objectively bad: It’s a white shirt featuring a picture of Trump wearing pixelated meme sunglasses, above the words “This is TNN.”

This isn’t Trump’s first foray into bizarre merch. Remember the NFTs? At least President Joe Biden understands what good meme merch should look like.

The bigger problem, of course, is that CNN gave Trump its platform in the first place. It was a blatant grab for viewers and buzz, which didn’t even work. An average of just 3.1 million viewers tuned in to the town hall, a mere sliver of the eyeballs Trump could attract during his time in office.

All the town hall did was legitimize Trump as a candidate. He spent the entire time spouting lies, misogynistic attacks, election conspiracy theories, and insults at anyone who tried to fact-check him. Countless people in the news media, including CNN employees, have slammed the town hall and the network for hosting it.

CNN went so far as to try to make the event as easy as possible for Trump. Before the town hall, the network reportedly told the audience, “Please do not boo, please be respectful.” They were allowed to applaud, though. Aside from this having big “Please clap” energy, it also provided positive reinforcement to everything Trump said, when his words really should have been met with fact-checks and horrified silence.

And in the end, all CNN has to show for it is egg on its proverbial face.