Tommy Tuberville Seems to Admit Republicans Went to Trump’s Trial to Circumvent the Gag Order

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) was unabashed when asked about attending former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial, telling Newsmax’s Chris Salcedo that Republicans did it to “overcome this gag order” on Trump.

Trump is facing 34 felony counts for falsifying business records regarding alleged hush money payments to cover up extramarital affairs before the 2016 election — a historic first-ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president. The gag order imposed by Judge Juan Merchan restricting Trump from discussing witnesses, jurors or prospective jurors, prosecutors, court staff, Merchan’s relatives, or relatives of the district attorney, has been a major source of irritation for Trump and his allies, even after he was found to have committed multiple violations, fined several thousand dollars, and warned future violations could very well land him behind bars.

Tuberville joined a group of Republican lawmakers and those rumored to be auditioning to be Trump’s running mate who trekked to New York City this week to show their support for the ex-president, many of whom drew mockery for their collective choices to mimic Trump’s trademark dark grey suit, white shirt, and red tie.

The Alabama senator doesn’t seem to have joined the red tie club – the sky blue tie he donned Monday was actually closer in hue to the one Trump himself wore in court that day, and he switched to yellow for Tuesday – but Tuberville nonetheless was all too happy to advocate for the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.

On Tuesday’s episode of The Chris Salcedo Show, the Newsmax host asked Tuberville what he saw in the Manhattan courtroom.

“Weaponization of our criminal justice system,” Tuberville replied.

“This judge’s pretty much got everybody hog tied,” he continued, “from President Trump on down, anybody on his side, but anybody that’s against President Trump and the Republican Party, they get to do whatever – this gag order is ridiculous. It’s weaponization of the political system. They’re trying to deter the next President of the United States from having a say-so in his own trial. He pretty much can’t defend himself.”

Tuberville described himself as being “really disappointed” in “how this whole thing was run.” He said he hoped that there would be “more and more senators and congressmen go up every day to represent him, and be able to go out and overcome this gag order. And that’s one of the reasons we went, is to be able to speak our piece for President Trump.”

“Well, that’s good,” said Salcedo, “you know, if he can’t speak on the sham this trial is, they can’t put you under a gag order – not yet.”

Trump himself has taken several notable steps to comply with the gag order, deleting several Truth Social posts and content from his website after Merchan ruled they were violations, and verbally censoring himself during a pre-court rant Friday morning to avoid committing more violations.

However, contrary to Tuberville and Salcedo’s musings, the plain language of the gag order is focused on restricting Trump’s behavior; it does not allow him to delegate his attacks.

As noted by Just Security reporter and former Law&Crime managing editor Adam Klasfeld, the gag order prohibits Trump from “[m]aking or directing others to make public statements,” which would cover any such comments by the former president’s claque of congressmen and wannabe veeps,

Comments made by Trump surrogates targeting people protected by the gag order include Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) criticizing Merchan’s daughter and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) attacking a witness, f0rmer Trump attorney Michael Cohen.

Watch the video above, via Newsmax.