As former President Donald Trump’s legal troubles mount, he often lashes out at a familiar target: judges.
Trump took aim at the judge presiding over the civil case involving author E. Jean Carroll, relegating his impartiality to being a “Clinton-appointed judge.”
Trump also claimed that the judge handling Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s hush money case against him “hates” him.
This is not a new tactic for the former President, who has questioned the motives and legitimacy of court rulings throughout his presidency.
But his recent frequency is notable given during his 2024 White House campaign Trump has promised “retribution” for those who feel the government has wronged them.
When Trump was indicted in Manhattan for his alleged role in paying adult film star Stormy Daniels hush money during his 2016 campaign, the former President immediately painted a New York state judge as biased in the case.
Trump posted several times on Truth Social about how Judge Juan Merchan was a “Trump Hating Judge” and claimed that Merchan “HATES ME.”
More recently, Trump took aim at Lewis Kaplan, the federal judge who presided over Carroll’s civil suit against him.
The author alleged that sometime in the mid-1990s, the former President raped her in a department store dressing room.
Describing Kaplan as a “Clinton appointed Judge,” Trump asserted Kaplan “hated” him “more than is humanly possible,” and wouldn’t recuse himself despite being biased.
In the past, Trump has insulted the judge overseeing Paul Manafort’s case, mocking some of the jurists who ruled against him as “Obama judges” and suggesting that the judge’s Mexican heritage could mean he could be biased against him.
Trump’s repeated attacks have alarmed the legal community, where observers have noted that Trump has a cadre of lawyers who could try to fight any verdicts he deems unjust — rights that every defendant has but are far more feasible for him than most.
