Retired Judge Spots 1 Blunt Response If Trump 'Steps Across' The 'Gag Order Line'
Former California Superior Court Judge LaDoris Hazzard Cordell declared that there has to be an “immediate consequence” should former President Donald Trump defy a court order.
“When he steps across that gag order line — and I do hope it will be expanded — there should be only one response: bring your toothbrush, Donald Trump, because you’re going to sit in a jail cell for a while,” Cordell told CNN’s Omar Jimenez on Sunday.
Acting New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, who is overseeing Trump’s upcoming criminal trial regarding hush money payments made ahead of the 2016 presidential election, imposed a gag order Tuesday that bars the former president from making public statements about witnesses, prosecutors, jurors and court staff in the trial.
The former president has since attacked Merchan and Merchan’s daughter on his Truth Social platform, leading the Manhattan district attorney’s office to suggest that Trump violated the gag order.
Cordell called on Merchan to immediately expand the gag order to include himself, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and their family members.
“You cannot have a court system that is subjected to these kinds of threats and intimidation,” she said.
She said judges have “done things appropriately” by issuing warnings and fines, adding that the gag order is next in line.
Cordell argued that it’s starting to sink in for judges that their lives and family members’ lives are at stake.
“So there is nothing left for them to do other than to go the next step,” Cordell said.
She continued, “And I don’t know what the mystique is or magic is about not putting Donald Trump in a jail cell so that he understands there are immediate consequences for not behaving as a normal adult in the courtroom. So, I don’t know, I think now may be the time.”
"I've presided over thousands of hearings and trials during my nearly 20 years as a trial judge and never did any defendants in my courtroom show such disrespect for the court system as what's shown by Donald Trump," says former judge LaDoris Cordell on Trump's recent attacks. pic.twitter.com/B78Q0ShqMC
— Omar Jimenez (@OmarJimenez) April 1, 2024
Former Superior Court Judge: I don't know what the mystique is or magic is about not putting Donald Trump in a jail cell so that he understands there are immediate consequences for not behaving as a normal adult in the courtroom pic.twitter.com/JcsVhfG1gP
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 31, 2024
