Donald Trump may have to be on better behavior at his upcoming criminal fraud trial than he was at the civil fraud case that cost him $354 million.
The former president is scheduled to stand trial starting March 25 in Manhattan on 34 counts of fraud, falsifying business records and intent to conceal another crime, including state and federal election laws, as part of his hush money payoff to adult movie actress Stormy Daniels.
And a trio of legal experts wrote for the New York Times he will be on a much shorter leash this time.
"[Manhattan District Attorney Alvin] Bragg and his team will be confronted with the challenge of working with Judge [Juan] Merchan to prevent Mr. Trump from acting out in front of the jury, and thereby disrupting the case or introducing irrelevant information to try to prejudice the outcome," wrote legal experts Norman Eisen, Joshua Kolb and Barbara McQuade.
"We all saw the spectacle that Mr. Trump created in the New York State civil fraud trial. But we also saw Mr. Trump reined in by federal Judge Lewis Kaplan in the E. Jean Carroll case, which, unlike the civil fraud one, featured a jury watching every move."
Trump will face a jury in this case, as well, and the rules are different in criminal court in comparison to a civil trial.
"Judge Merchan is cut more from the cloth of Judge Kaplan. He is a widely respected and experienced jurist," wrote Eisen, Kolb and McQuade. "Moreover, criminal trial rules and practice give him even more latitude than Judge Kaplan had in the E. Jean Carroll civil matter.
"With a jury in the box, Judge Merchan is unlikely to tolerate repeated outbursts. We got a taste of that at the hearing last week, when he repeatedly and summarily shut down frivolous objections from Mr. Trump’s counsel."
Trump and his attorneys were repeatedly chided for courtroom outbursts by both Engoron and Kaplan in those cases, and the former president often ranted to reporters outside the courtroom, but he might not get away with such misbehavior in criminal court.
"The seriousness of the prosecution can also be conveyed at sentencing," the trio wrote. "If Mr. Trump is convicted, Mr. Bragg should seek jail time. Each count of document falsification carries a term of up to four years in prison. Many individuals, including first-time offenders, are sentenced to imprisonment for this crime in New York."
Earlier this week, Trump fumed at the results of the financial fraud trial that could cost him as much as $450 million.
On his Truth Social platform, the former president, who is now looking at paying out over a half billion dollars in two civil suits and the trial just concluded in Judge Arthur Engoron's court room, attacked New York Attorney General Letitia James.
"We can’t allow Crooked or Compromised Judges and Prosecutors to get away with what they are doing to your favorite President, ME, in New York City and State, Fulton County (Atlanta), Georgia, or Washington, D.C.," he wrote. "It is a coordinated attack on FREEDOM & LIBERTY. It is an attack on the future of our Nation. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"
"It is illegal Election Interference, and if I weren’t running, or leading so big, none of this would be happening," he added.
