New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said former President Donald Trump was being held in a "legal version of an ankle bracelet" by his mandatory appearance in a Manhattan court throughout the course of his alleged "hush money" trial.
Upon the trial’s commencement in mid-April, Judge Juan M. Merchan, who is overseeing the trial, ordered the former president to appear in court for the duration of his trial, threatening Trump with arrest if he failed to comply.
Ocasio-Cortez made her remarks on Wednesday while speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill about Trump's Thursday South Bronx campaign.
“By the way, [Trump’s] doing it in the South Bronx not to make a point, but because he’s got court,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “And the man practically has the legal version of an ankle bracelet around him, and he can’t leave the five boroughs because he always has to be in court."
The New York representative said Trump campaigning in the South Bronx due to his mandatory daily appearance in court was "embarrassing."
"I am looking forward to the response of everyday Bronxites talking about how they feel about him coming to their backyard," she added.
Steve Cortes, who formerly worked on Trump's 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, suggested Ocasio-Cortez said the "quiet part out loud" by acknowledging Trump's attendance in court stymied his ability to campaign in other locations. 🚨Wow. @AOC accidentally says the quiet part out loud. She mocks President Trump for holding a rally in the South Bronx and brags about how the Democrats’ lawfare is forcing him to stay in New York City:
“By the way, Trump’s doing it in the South Bronx not to make a point but… pic.twitter.com/459TvGZ7zK
— Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) May 22, 2024
Trump's trial follows last April's charges brought against him by New York City District Attorney Alvin Bragg over alleged "hush money" payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and subsequent falsified business documents regarding funds paid to his then-attorney Michael Cohen. The former president was arrested and arraigned in a Manhattan court shortly after.
The trial also regards an infamous leaked audio from Trump's September 2005 Access Hollywood interview with Billy Bush, which featured lewd a discussion of women. The recording, which was released the October before Trump was elected president in 2016, will be highlighted in the trial, though other allegations of sexual assault will not be used in the case.
After the first day of his trial, Trump commented on Judge Merchan's mandatory attendance demand and said he would likely miss his son Barron's graduation from Oxbridge Academy in West Palm Beach.
In late April, Judge Merchan granted Trump's request to attend his son's graduation ceremony. Photos of the former president cheering on Barron from the crowd went viral across social media.
On Tuesday, Trump's defense team rested their case. Judge Merchan dismissed the jury until May 28, when prosecution and defense teams will present their closing arguments. The jury is expected to begin deliberation the following day.
“There’s no crime. The only problem is the witnesses who are experts in these things aren’t allowed to actually testify to that, because you have a rigged system,” the former president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., told Breitbart.
“If it can happen to Donald Trump … with a platform, hundreds of millions of followers, the ability to fight — they will do it to anyone, and they have weaponized this system against their political enemies, and they’ve started to go down a very dangerous and a very slippery slope,” he continued. “This insanity cannot stand.”
