Former President Trump appeared to delete a social media post Tuesday morning complaining that his legal team did not have adequate time to prepare for the next witness in the hush money criminal trial, within an hour of initially posting it.
In his statement posted at 7:30 a.m. on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he has “just recently been told who the witness is today.”
“This is unprecedented, no time for lawyers to prepare,” the former president wrote in the now-deleted post. “No Judge has ever run a trial in such a biased and partisan way.”
He also proceeded to attack the judge in the case.
“He is CROOKED & HIGHLY CONFLICTED, even taking away my First Amendment Rights. Now he’s threatening me with JAIL & THEY HAVE NO CASE -This according to virtually all Legal Scholars & Experts! Why isn’t the Fake News Media reporting his Conflict?” Trump said.
The former president’s team has the potential witness list but isn’t learning who will be taking the stand until shortly beforehand. Prosecutors have indicated they normally would provide a longer heads up as a courtesy but have not done so in this case because of Trump’s recent posts about witnesses.
“We still don’t know the next witness,” Trump attorney Todd Blanche said in the courtroom just before the trial wrapped Monday.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass indicated his team was planning to notify the defense about the next witness right after yesterday’s proceedings ended.
“I don’t like the impression being left that we are somehow sandbagging the defense,” Steinglass told the judge.
Trump was recently found to have committed 10 violations of a gag order imposed by Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the case. Trump is facing 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment he made to porn actor Stormy Daniels in 2016.
Attorney Clark Brewster confirmed to The Hill that his client, Daniels — whose real name is Stephanie Clifford — is expected to be called as a witness in the trial Tuesday.
Zach Schonfeld contributed.