How Trump’s tweets, outspoken comments affect legal system
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s voters may love his outspoken ways. But judges? Not so much.
The president’s tweets already have played a role in court decisions blocking his bans on travel and transgender members of the military. The judge deciding Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s sentence also has said he might take Trump’s scathing criticism of Bergdahl into account. And now the president is calling for the death penalty for the suspect in the bike path attack in New York.
Lawyers for the suspect in the New York attack, Sayfullo Saipov, almost certainly will argue that Trump’s two tweets saying Saipov should get the “DEATH PENALTY” will make it harder for their client to receive a fair trial or sentence.
Although some legal experts said judges in Manhattan’s federal courts will not let the president’s remarks throw the case off track, Trump’s comments broke with longstanding tradition against presidents publicly commenting on criminal cases.