True to his brand, disgraced former President Trump managed to fuck things up for himself before the first full day of the EJ Carroll rape trial started on Wednesday by writing two Truth Social posts about the case, in the first of which he claimed Carroll “said there was a dress, using the ol’ Monica Lewinsky ‘stuff’, then she didn’t want to produce it. The dress should be allowed to be part of the case. This is a fraudulent & false story – Witch Hunt!” and then the other carrying on saying Carroll should have screamed in a crowded department store and filed a police report, so on and so forth.

An hour or so later, Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan then read them to the court according to Law and Crime’s Adam Klasfeld, with Kaplan arguing that the posts violated court orders barring discussion of who is paying her and the DNA issue. This prompted federal Judge Lewis Kaplan (no relation) to ask lawyer Joe Tacopina why Trump “for three years, refused to give a DNA sample, and now he wants it in the case?” adding that it’s “entirely inappropriate” for Trump to be talking about it, and wondering if Donald’s trying to influence the public and/or jurors about the case.

Tacopina then said he’ll “try to address that with my client” and ask Trump to “refrain from any further posts regarding this case,” to which Judge Kaplan responded “Well, I hope you’re more successful… [Trump] may or may not be tampering with a new source of potential liability. And I think you know what I mean,” which probably means criminal liability for witness tampering.