Former President Trump took to social media on Wednesday with an unequivocal claim that keeping and expressing his constitutional rights were of the utmost importance to him, despite any penalty he could face amid a gag order imposed by a New York judge.
“Give me liberty or give me death,” he wrote in an all-caps message on TRUTH Social, quoting the American Founding Father Patrick Henry.
The comment comes as Judge Juan Merchan said on Monday that he will consider jail time for Trump, should he continue to violate a gag order imposed upon him in his ongoing criminal trial.
“It is a really bad feeling to have your Constitutional Right to Free Speech, such a big part of life in our Country, so unfairly taken from you, especially when all of the sleazebags, lowlifes, and grifters that you oppose are allowed to say absolutely anything that they want,” Trump’s post continued. “It is hard to sit back and listen to lies and false statements be made against you knowing that if you respond, even in the most modest fashion, you are told by a Corrupt and Highly Conflicted Judge that you will be put in prison, maybe for a long period of time.”
TRUMP SAYS JAIL TIME TO DEFEND FREE SPEECH IS ‘SACRIFICE’ HE’S WILLING TO MAKE
Merchan imposed a gag order on Trump before his criminal trial in New York began, ordering the presumptive Republican presidential nominee not to make or direct others to make public statements about witnesses, counsel in the case or about court staff, the DA staff or family members of staff.
In the Wednesday post, Trump added: “This Fascist mindset is all coming from D.C. It is a sophisticated hit job on Crooked Joe Biden’s Political Opponent, ME!”
‘THE VIEW’ CO-HOSTS CALL FOR DONALD TRUMP TO BE THROWN IN JAIL TO ‘PROVE A POINT’
The post also included a swipe at Judges Engoron and Kaplan, also of New York. He called them “equally corrupt, only in different ways.”
“What these thugs are doing is an attack on the Republican Party, and our once great nation itself. Our First Amendment must stand, free and strong,” the former president concluded.
On Monday, Trump said he’d make the “sacrifice” of going to jail to defend free speech.
“Our Constitution is much more important than jail. It’s not even close. I’ll do that sacrifice any day,” the former president said outside the courtroom Monday afternoon.
On Tuesday, “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin suggested Judge Merchan should throw Trump in prison to “prove a point.”
“I don’t want this to sound like I’m doing wishful thinking, but which prison would be best?” co-host Whoopi Goldberg added, mentioning he could go to Alcatraz or Guantanamo Bay.
Co-host Ana Navarro joked that former First Lady Melania Trump could visit her husband if he were sent to Guantanamo.
Trump’s post on Wednesday was a nod to the patriotic line from Henry’s 1775 address.
In 1775, as colonists were advocating for American independence from a tyrannical British Empire, Patrick Henry addressed a worried Virginia Assembly.
“Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace but there is no peace. The war is actually begun!” Henry said in his remarks. “The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
Fox News’ Emma Colton, Hanna Panreck and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
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