Legal expert on new Trump gag order: He's 'incapable of shutting his mouth!'

Elie Mystal, the justice correspondent for The Nation, joined CNN’s Laura Coates on Tuesday to discuss the gag order that a judge recently imposed on Donald Trump in advance of his hush-money criminal trial. The order is meant to stop Trump from attacking witnesses, prosecutors, and jurors in his upcoming criminal trial.

Coates asked whether Trump might “abide” by this new gag order, but Mystal reminded everyone that Trump “is incapable of shutting his mouth,” pointing out that Trump received this gag order because of his penchant to publicly attack everyone not named Donald Trump. “He attacks judges, their staff, their families, the lawyers, their families, witnesses, jurors, hurricanes, windmills,” Mystal said. “The man only does attack.” 

“In the courtroom, the judge is the boss, the judge is the king, not Donald Trump,” Mystal continued. “That is a fact that Trump has a hard time dealing with.” 

Since Mystal seemed pretty sure Trump would violate his gag order, Coates asked what would happen to him if he did, and Mystal had this response:

I almost can't answer that question because I'm Black. If I violated the gag order, I would be in jail. That's how it works for people who look like me. For people who look like Trump, for people who act like Trump, for people with the political power and money and connections that Trump has, I doubt very seriously that the judge will jail him as he's supposed to for running his mouth.