As Donald Trump’s hush-money trial continues with new testimony, there has been a strict electronics ban in the courtroom, which was broken last week by the former president’s second son.
Eric Trump was spotted tweeting on his phone in the middle of his father’s trial on Monday by an NBC News reporter.
This directly violates the ban on the use of technology inside the New York City courtroom that was instated by Judge Juan Merchan.
It was later revealed that Eric was publicly targeting Michael Cohen, a former associate of his father who’s a central witness for the prosecution against him, during his testimony on Monday. “I have never seen anything more rehearsed,” Eric wrote, alluding to Cohen’s testimony.
NBC News reported that they detected Eric on his phone apparently making the post, which went live at about 10:51 a.m. while court was still in session.
Cohen has continuously been vocal about the under-the-table work he did for Trump, including at his own 2018 trial where he was ultimately sentenced to prison for pleading guilty to lying to Congress about a Trump project in Moscow, remaining loyal to the former president in that case. On Monday however, he testified that Trump was directly involved in a scheme to kill negative stories about him during the 2016 election.
Trump has frequently denounced the gag order, portraying it as an effort to silence his political speech as he campaigns for a return to the Oval Office. New York State Judge Juan Merchan has found him in violation of the order 10 times, fined him and warned him, in no uncertain terms, that further transgressions could result in incarceration.
Eric has been regularly attending the trial, appearing in the first bench behind his father, and this is not the first time he has shared his discontent with the legal proceedings on X.
There has been no indication of whether or not he will face a penalty for violating the regulation imposed by the judge.
