WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former US president Donald Trump said it would be “a great honor” to go to prison for violating a silence order imposed by the judge who will hear his upcoming trial on charges stemming from a hush money payment to a porn star.
“If this Partisan Hack wants to put me in the clink for speaking the open and obvious TRUTH, I will happily become a modern-day Nelson Mandela – that will be my GREAT HONOR,” Trump said Saturday on his Truth Social platform.
Trump was referring to Judge Juan Merchan, who will preside over his trial in New York state court in Manhattan on charges of concealing a $130,000 payment before the 2016 election to porn star Stormy Daniels to buy her silence about an alleged sexual relationship.
The trial begins April 15.
The Republican, who is challenging Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election, has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records and denies meeting Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
On April 1, Merchan expanded an existing silence order that barred Trump from publicly commenting on witnesses and court staff, to clarify that it also applied to family members. He did so after Trump disparaged Merchan’s daughter.
The upcoming secret trial is one of four criminal cases Trump faces ahead of the US election. He could be the only one to be tried before the elections. He pleaded not guilty to all and called them politically motivated.
(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Saint Paul, Minnesota; editing by Matthew Lewis)
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