Former President Donald Trump’s allies and family members are tearing into New York City Judge Juan Merchan for reminding his father that New York law mandates he appear in court every day of the trial.

“Pure evil,” Donald Trump Jr. declared on X, formerly known as Twitter. Trump Jr. was weighing in on the possibility that former President Trump may not be able to skip court on May 17 to attend his youngest son Barron’s high school graduation.

According to MSNBC’s Katie Phang, Judge Merchan said he could not rule on the issue “at this time,” but would consider it.

Eric Trump also chimed in, writing on X: “Judge Merchan is truly heartless in not letting a father attend his son’s graduation.”

Responded Reuters crime reporter Brad Heath, “For better or worse, this is a routine thing when people are accused of crimes. Lots of defendants miss lots of things — kids’ births, graduations, funerals, etc. — because they are on trial or detained pending trial.”

Donald Trump’s civil court trial lawyer, Alina Habba, also noted her issues with jury selection.

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“You’re not allowed to ask who they voted for,” Habba told conservative podcast host Benny Johnson. “You’re shot in the foot right there.”

Merchan is permitting a range of inquiries concerning political views, such as inquiries concerning any groups that prospective jurors may be involved in or have contributed to financially, mentioning QAnon and Antifa in particular.

Habba then claimed that Trump was unfairly at a disadvantage because he was running for office in a mostly blue state, and that this would make it “much easier” for the Manhattan District Attorney’s office to assemble a jury that would most likely find Trump guilty.

“They’re going to try to get the best jury pool they can,” Habba warned.

“What is troubling in this case is that when we (she is not on this case) are doing jury selection starting today, one of the things that the judge here, Judge Merchan, would not allow us to ask was whether or not they voted Republican or Democrat, whether or not they voted for President Trump,” Habba argued.

“This judge has eliminated many of those questions. You’re not allowed to ask who they voted for (you never are), you can ask what news they watch but I watch CNN and I watch Fox because I like to know what my opposition is saying … So when you are sitting with a president and current nominee for the GOP and you can’t ask how you vote, you’re shot in the foot right there. That hindrance is an of itself is problematic right from the get-go,” she added.

On Monday night, CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin weighed in on Trump’s criminal trial and said the former president got some “good news” from the judge.

Trump, the 45th president of the United States and the presumed nominee of the Republican Party, began his criminal trial on Monday, with prospective jurors gathering in a New York City courtroom as Trump observed.

Trump is accused of fabricating almost thirty business documents to conceal a payment made to Stormy Daniels, a porn star who claimed to have had a brief sexual encounter with him in 2006.

During a segment on CNN, Toobin spoke about Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan’s ruling to keep the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape from the jury, saying it was an “appropriate decision for Trump’s benefit.”

“Jeff, I‘m wondering what you make the different evidence that the judge has ruled in miscible. Karen McDougal, the former, played barred play man at the foreign president allegedly had an affair with, will be allowed to testify and other hand, the accident it‘s Hollywood tape which everybody knows about can‘t be played for the jury,” CNN’s Anderson Cooper said.

Toobin responded: “I thought those were very reasonable conclusions by the judge. The Karen McDougal story is very similar to the Stormy Daniels story. It is money paid for silence for women who were allegedly involved with Trump at Trump‘s behalf asked the idea that Trump was trying to keep information from the voters on the eve of, on the eve of the election by, by paying this money or having his allies at the national enquirer pay pay Karen McDougal.”

“I also thought it was appropriate to keep the access Hollywood tape out. That is the case. That is a tape about non consensual sexual contact the Donald Trump saying what everyone knows he said about what he could do with women,” Toobin continued.

“That‘s not what this case is about no one to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, both it claim that this was consensual sex, and I thought keeping that away from the jury, even though they probably already know about it, was an appropriate decision for Trump‘s benefit,” he added.

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