Ex-RNC Chair Calls for Donald Trump to Be Thrown in Jail
By: Natalie Venegas (Newsweek)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Michael Steele, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), called for former President Donald Trump to be thrown in jail on Saturday over his repeated attacks on judges and court staff in his numerous ongoing court cases.
Trump, who is the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, continues to face various legal troubles with trials at both the state and federal level, and has been civilly sued by New York Attorney General Letitia James for $250 million. In her lawsuit, James alleges that Trump, his adult sons, and top executives at The Trump Organization, conspired to increase his net worth by billions of dollars on financial statements provided to banks and insurers to make deals and secure loans.
In addition, the former president has been indicted in four separate cases: two brought by Department of Justice's (DOJ) special counsel Jack Smith, one by the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and another from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in Georgia. Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has called the trials politically motivated. However, he has made repeated attacks on judges and court staff often taking to Truth Social to voice his stance, which has cost him to be issued gag orders.
Although Trump was issued a gag order on October 3 in his New York civil fraud trial by Judge Arthur Engoron, who is overseeing the case, that barred him from commenting about court personnel after he disparaged a law clerk on Truth Social, it was temporarily lifted Thursday by an appellate judge who raised free speech concerns.
During Saturday's episode of MSNBC's Ayman, host Ayman Mohyeldin discussed Trump's attacks on court staff and asked Steele to discuss the danger of these attacks and the lifted gag order.
"It is enormously dangerous, I am shocked that we have allowed this to get this far. I'm just going to use my best analysis that I can give you at this point on this situation with Trump, and the attacks on the judges. Put his a** in jail. That's how you end it. That's how it stops," Steele said.
The former RNC chair added: "People will be mad, they will be upset. But there is no other person on this planet, certainly not in this country, who would be given the kind of grace that Donald Trump has been given to run his mouth the way he has—attacking clerks, attacking judges, attacking the prosecutors personally; threatening them."
Steele continued: "We've shown the evidence when he does that how his base responds. And so the system is getting pulverized from within by Trump, and is being pressed to the umpteenth corner it can go in trying to appease him, and allow him to be free while he is still behaving this way."
Newsweek has reached out to the Michael Steele Network and Trump via email for comment.
Meanwhile, Judge Tanya Chutkan who is overseeing Trump's federal case regarding his alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 election results, reimposed a narrow gag order last month that restricts what Trump can say about Smith's team and potential witnesses in the case.
Chutkan had originally lifted the gag order to allow Trump's lawyers time to prove why the former president's comments should not be restricted ahead of the federal trial, which is scheduled to begin in March 2024. Trump and his legal team have frequently argued that a gag order against a presidential candidate while they are embarking on a White House campaign is a violation of his First Amendment rights.
In a post on Truth Social following the decision, Trump criticized Chutkan, suggesting she should recuse herself from the case.
"I have just learned that the very Biased, Trump Hating Judge in D.C., who should have RECUSED herself due to her blatant and open loathing of your favorite President, ME, has reimposed a GAG ORDER which will put me at a disadvantage against my prosecutorial and political opponents," he wrote on Truth Social.
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This is not the first time Trump's attacks have been under fire as some were concerned what the former president's supporters would do after he reposted to his Truth Social account on Tuesday a message calling for a citizen's arrest of Engoron and James.
Former U.S Attorney Barbara McQuade previously told Newsweek in a statement that this move is "incredibly reckless" of Trump, explaining that someone can view this post and take violent action against James and Engoron.
"Trump's statement is incredibly reckless in light of the history of people responding to his dangerous rhetoric. Someone could take violent action in response," McQuade said.
Court system lawyer Lisa Evans said Engoron and his staff have received hundreds of threatening and antisemitic phone calls and letters since the trial began in October, the Associated Press reported Thursday. Evans blamed Trump's comments about Engoron and his clerk, Allison Greenfield, for amplifying his supporters' anger toward them.
However on Thursday, a state intermediate appeals court, headed by Judge David Friedman, granted a temporary stay on Engoron's gag order effectively suspending it due to the "constitutional and statutory rights at issue." The judge also questioned Engoron's authority to police what Trump says outside the courtroom.
Trump's lawyer, Christopher Kise, applauded the temporary stay as the "right decision."
Friedman has "allowed President Trump to take full advantage of his constitutional First Amendment rights to talk about bias in his own trial, what he's seeing and witnessing in his own trial — which, frankly, everyone needs to see," Kise said, according to the AP.
Newsweek has reached out to Kise via email for comment.
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Michael Steele is a sane Republican. There aren't enough of them anymore.
I'm a couple moves past the ex-RNC chair when it comes to the orange menace...
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What has been happening and the failure to stop it sets a precedent for the behaviour of accused persons and IMO has caused the decorum required for fair justice to be rendered forever damaged. Next time someone thinks of saying God Bless America they should consider changing that to God Help America.
Why not both? We could sure use them both.
You're absolutely right, and even more than those two.
"Sane" Republican???? Charging $17,000 for private jet travel, $13,000 for limousines and car services and $9,000 for a trip to the Beverly Hills hotel. The RNC's approval of nearly $2,000 at a sex-themed nightclub in Los Angeles in the name of entertaining donors raised even more eyebrows - which he denies - and you claim him to be "Sane"?
Sorry, but those are actions of the Dem/Lib party - "Spend it when you ain't got it - and then lie about it."
WTF are you ranting about?
Funny, isn't it?
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America has normalized Trump's insanity. The only things left to be determined is how long it lasts and whether our society can survive it. When a lunatic pathological liar can stand in a lobby of a courtroom ranting and raving about the judge and his staff, and no one bats an eye, we have normalized the behavior. God help us, cause we sure cant help ourselves.
Part of America has. The majority recognize it for what it is, a grave threat to democracy.
I really dont think that is clear at this point.
We will find out.
IMO.....those who choose to vote for Trump are as stupid as those who sow a bag of Cheerios and expect them to produce a bumper crop of gold coins.
Sadly Trump and his behavior have been normalized in America.
It is all good that former Republican talking heads are calling for sanity, but what the country needs is sitting Republican officials to say something equivalent. Their refusal to do so shows that they are complicit and give tacit recognition to his "right" to not just blabber on, but to make attacks on the very system that they are part of.
Trump needs to be handed that big dick that he enjoys swinging around.
You mean the one in his dreams?
I was just gonna ask the same question
I've come to the opinion that people at least 3 generations removed from history repeat the idiocies of the past.
How did I know that this ex-RNC chair would be Michael Steele? Typical bullshit by the liberal media, find someone who tells you what you want to hear and then hold them up as some sort of authority.
Lol. Good thing Republicans don’t do that.
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Who would imagine that the former Chairman of the RNC, who broke fund-raising records while Chairman and under whose leadership the Republicans won 63 House seats in the 2010 election (the biggest pick up since 1938), who is also a former Republican Lt. Governor of Maryland... who would imagine that he would be "some sort of authority" about the Republican Party?
Does his child Santos ring a bell - they both have excelled at "stealing" money meant for others.
Who better to know about the Republican Party?
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nonsensical comments.
How close to the bottom of the barrel did they have to go to find a disgruntled ex-employee who was fired after 1 term because he was such a miserable prick that nobody liked.
Trump was another couple of feet down there.
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