The magistrate judge presiding over Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 election conspiracy case during Thursday’s arraignment admonished the former president not to commit any crimes while he is awaiting trial, but a legal expert suggested the terms of his release may be too “complicated.”
Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya warned the former president that failure to adhere to the court’s terms of his release could result in his detention or add to a potential sentence if he’s convicted. She specifically told Trump that it is a crime to “influence a juror or try to threaten or bribe a witness or retaliate against anyone” connected to the case, which Trump told the judge he understood.
But Laurie Levenson, a law professor at Loyola Law School of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, told The Associated Press that the terms of Trump’s release, “standard language” in most criminal cases, may be too complicated for someone in the former president’s position.
“The standard language may not work here, when you have thousands of Americans who could be witnesses and he continues to have daily contact with people who may be involved,” Levenson told The AP.
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“Everything is more complicated in this case because of who the defendant is, what he has done and that he wants to be president again.”
Author and journalist David Rothkopf wrote on his social media account that “Trump admonished not to commit any crimes as a term of his release. This guy obstructs justice like most of us breathe. And, as the judge observed, it’s also a crime to influence a juror. Same’s true re: a witness. Could be a wild ride.”
That ride may already have started after Trump on Friday wrote on his Truth Social website “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!”
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