Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over the NY v. Trump trial in Manhattan, granted former President Trump permission on Tuesday to attend his son Barron’s high school graduation in Florida next month. The decision came after Trump had pushed for weeks to attend the event, expressing his disappointment earlier this month at the prospect of missing it. “I don’t think the May 17 date is a problem,” Judge Merchan told the court Tuesday morning of Barron Trump’s graduation date. “(Barron’s) a great student and he’s very proud of the fact he did so well and was looking forward for years to having his graduation with his mother and father there, and it looks like the judge isn’t going to allow me to escape this scam. It’s a scam trial,” the former president said earlier this month when the trial kicked off. It is unclear if trial proceedings will pause on May 17 or if the president will simply be absent from the courtroom that day, which falls on a Friday. The trial is currently in its ninth day, with Trump facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The case has heard from three witnesses as of late Tuesday morning, including former American Media Inc. CEO and former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, former executive assistant to Trump and a senior vice president of the Trump Organization Rhona Graff, and Gary Farro, who served as senior managing director at First Republic Bank in 2016. On Tuesday, Merchan also ordered Trump to pay $9,000 in fines for violating a gag order that bans him from speaking publicly about witnesses and family members of court officials. The judge found he violated the order on nine separate occasions, with each violation resulting in a $1,000 fine. The judge detailed in the order that if Trump carries out “continued willful violations” of the gag order, he could face “incarceratory punishment” if “necessary and appropriate.” Despite the judge’s ruling, Trump continued to criticize the case and the judge, calling for Merchan to recuse himself. “This is a hoax. This is a judge who is conflicted. Badly, badly, badly conflicted. I’ve never seen a judge so conflicted and giving us virtually no rulings,” Trump said outside the courtroom. Trump has previously slammed Merchan, including railing against him on Truth Social last month, when he called on the judge to recuse himself and cited Merchan’s daughter and her work as a political consultant for Democratic politicians. Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
Trump Granted Permission to Attend Son’s Graduation Despite Ongoing Trail
