Several conservatives have not held back their discontent with New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan not immediately granting former President Donald Trump’s request to have one day off of court proceedings so that he could attend his son Barron Trump’s high school graduation in Florida.
This is how disgusting the Biden Trial has become. Not even letting the President attend his son’s high school graduation. Nothing but a political attack.👇
“Trump's hush-money trial might make him miss Barron's high school graduation ceremony” https://t.co/6WZ5DcPUdZ
— Jason Miller (@JasonMillerinDC) April 15, 2024
Merchan told the Republican presidential nominee that he could not guarantee that he would be allowed to reschedule his May 17 court date to attend the Palm Beach, Florida, graduation.
“It really depends on if we are on time and where we are in the trial,” Merchan said in court.
Donald Trump should go to his son, Barron's graduation and DARE Judge Merchan to jail him! pic.twitter.com/VjGviWDXpS
— Sebastian Gorka DrG (@SebGorka) April 17, 2024
If Trump missed court that day, Merchan said he would be arrested.
“As you know, my son is graduating from high school and it looks like the judge will not let me go to the graduation of my son, who has worked very, very hard,” Trump told reporters Monday afternoon. “He was looking forward, for years, to that graduation with his mother and father there, and it looks like the judge isn’t going to allow me to escape this scam.”
Trump’s civil lawyer, Alina Habba, expressed her frustrations with Merchan for possibly prohibiting the former president from attending his son’s graduation on Monday night in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity.
Many conservatives had much to say about the possibility of Trump missing Barron’s graduation.
On Fox News’s Monday airing of “The Five,” Fox Nation host Piers Morgan said that if he were Trump, he would “just go,” noting that every parent in America can relate and not miss the once-in-a-lifetime event.
Former New Jersey governor candidate and pastor Phil Rizzo also shared Morgan’s viewpoint, calling the chance to go to jail for supporting his children an honor.
There are a few things that you should WANT to get arrested over, and this is one of them.
For me, I would have been HONORED to be arrested for not closing my church in 2020 under Murphy.
And I would be THRILLED to be arrested for missing a court date to support my kids.… https://t.co/71K6Dsb375
— Phil Rizzo 🇺🇸 (@JerseyRizzo) April 15, 2024
Former Republican New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani called Merchan a “disgrace” and wrote that there should be an investigation.
Judge Merchan is a disgrace and not a judge in the tradition of Anglo-American jurists. By refusing to allow Donald J. Trump to attend his son Barron’s graduation—something even guilty defendants would be allowed to do—he goes beyond the usual NYC judge selected by Democrat…
— Rudy W. Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) April 16, 2024
Trump is accused of paying off two women, adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, to keep quiet about affairs he had with them. According to Daniels, she was paid $130,000 to keep quiet about an affair back in 2006.
McDougal alleges that she had a 10-month-long affair with the former president in the mid-2000s and was reportedly paid $150,000 to keep quiet.
