DERRY, N.H. — Other criminal defendants might play it safe when a gag order they’ve been subjected to gets temporarily lifted.

Donald Trump is not your average defendant.

At a series of appearances on Monday in New Hampshire, the former president seemed to take delight in flouting the court system that now endangers his livelihood and the judges urging him to watch his mouth. Clearer still was that he fully intends to wring political advantage out of the cases he is navigating.

It is, he told his followers, all “bullshit.”

Hours before he’s expected to appear back in court for his civil fraud trial in New York, Trump stood on a stage in a cavernous sports complex in southern New Hampshire and hurled insults at President Joe Biden and his Justice Department. He mocked New York Attorney General Leticia James and swiped at Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. And he wondered if his indictments would make his late father proud.

“I got indicted four times in the last 12 minutes. I heard we got two more, but I heard the DOJ called ‘no don’t do it’ because we’ve gone up in the polls every time I’ve gotten indicted,” Trump joked to cheers.

“‘Don’t indict him anymore. This is killing us,’” he went on, taking on the voice of a fictional caller from the DOJ. “We’re going to indict him right into the White House.”

Trump and his allies have long used the criminal cases against him to rally the MAGA base, an enduring feature of his unique brand of grievance politics. But never have those legal problems so clearly intersected with his political fate. Two Trump-aligned lawyers, Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, recently agreed to plea deals in the Georgia election interference criminal case, right as Trump is upping efforts to defend his legal cases in the court of public opinion.

In a reflection of just how intertwined his legal and political paths have become, Trump’s campaign moved swiftly to fundraise off news of the gag order with email pleas to supporters reading, “I won’t let a gag order silence YOU.” And there has been consideration in Trump world about what an appeal of the gag order could mean electorally. The appeal could further delay the proceedings, which is what the former president has wanted, according to two people familiar with discussions and granted anonymity to speak freely.

Hanging over all the deliberations is a recognition that Trump likely won’t stop talking about it, though perhaps in more moderated tones.

“This is the first time in history that somebody’s been indicted and his poll numbers have gone up,” Trump said. “When you get indicted, screw them, because the people understand it’s bullshit.”

“Bullshit, bullshit,” the crowd chanted back.

Earlier in the afternoon, while filing for New Hampshire’s presidential primary ballot at the secretary of state’s office in Concord, Trump said he is not concerned “at all” about losing attorney-client privilege with Powell after he claimed she was never his attorney despite having once said just that. Trump went on to insist he did “nothing wrong,” that his mounting legal challenges were “dirty politics” and that he might go after his own political opponents.

“It’s a two-way street,” Trump said. “Now it can happen the other way also, and that’s a sad moment for our country.”

Trump’s remarks come amid an intensifying fight — in Washington, D.C., and New York — about the danger his rhetoric poses to the efforts to hold him accountable in criminal and civil court. And they underscore the rhetorical tightrope he is now going to have to walk as the primary voting season nears.

Judges in both cities are weighing concerns that Trump’s social media bombast and penchant for invective against his perceived enemies could poison the jury pool in his criminal cases or spook witnesses from being fully candid.

On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan gave Trump a temporary reprieve from a gag order she had imposed just three days earlier, after Trump’s attorney John Lauro argued that parts of the order were vague and indecipherable. Within hours, Trump had resumed his attacks on the lead prosecutor in his Washington and Florida criminal cases, special counsel Jack Smith, calling him “deranged” and also swiping at a potential witness in his Florida trial.

Chutkan had already warned Trump that some of his comments in that vein had violated his pretrial conditions of release. She imposed the gag order last Tuesday to formally bind Trump from making specific incendiary statements about Smith and his team, potential witnesses and court officials.

His comments, and any others he makes on the campaign trail or Truth Social, could figure into his legal fight to permanently lift the gag order — or a decision by Chutkan to reimpose it.

Already, Trump has run afoul of another judge’s gag order. Arthur Engoron, who is presiding over the civil fraud trial of Trump’s business empire, slapped Trump with a $5,000 fine last week after he learned that Trump’s campaign website continued to feature an attack on Engoron’s top clerk — even after the judge had order Trump to take it down and refrain from future attacks.

Trump’s attorney Chris Kise said the issue was an oversight because of some automated campaign procedures. Engoron said his decision to levy a nominal fine reflected that inadvertence. But he warned that he would impose far heavier punishment — including potential jail time — if Trump committed further violations.

Trump appeared to stay within those bounds at his Derry rally, where nearly 2,000 supporters from across New England packed into a gymnasium to see him.

Clad in bright red “Make America Great Again” hats and T-shirts depicting Trump behind bars, the former president’s fans danced on chairs to Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” as they waited for him to arrive. They laughed and clapped as he impersonated Biden from the podium and jeered as Trump ripped the president’s approach to Israel. Cries of “we love you” occasionally rose up from the crowd.

In interview after interview on Monday, Trump’s supporters stressed they would not leave his side even as his legal problems mount. In fact, they said, the more charges pile up against him, the more motivated they are to vote for him again.

“We think it’s a bunch of bullshit,” Jackie Thibault, a Chester, N.H., Republican, said as she clutched a hand-painted “Trump 2024” sign. “We see what they’re trying to do with him. … They’re so afraid of him, and that’s why they’re going after him.”

There was an undercurrent of confusion among some of Trump’s supporters — Thibault included — about why Powell and Chesebro took plea deals last week and what that could mean for Trump.

“I don’t understand that,” Thibault said.

But Trump’s “got a plan,” she said. “I’m hoping he does.”

As part of a plea deal, former Minneapolis police officer Justin Stetson agreed to write an apology letter to the St. Paul man he beat amid the civil unrest after George Floyd’s murder.

However, that man, Jaleel Stallings, said Monday that he does not accept it.

Jaleel Stallings speaks with reporters inside the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis moments after Justin Stetson, a former Minneapolis police officer, was sentenced for assaulting Stallings during the unrest that followed the murder of George Floyd in 2020. (AP Photo/Trisha Ahmed)

“I feel if you are truly sorry for something, it would come at a much earlier time, not when your back is against the wall and you are forced to do so,” said Stallings, who spent five days in jail and was charged with attempted murder in connection with the May 2020 confrontation with police. A jury later acquitted Stallings, who then also won a $1.5 million settlement from the city.

Stetson was given a sentence of 15 days in the Hennepin County workhouse and two years of probation after he pleaded guilty to felony third-degree assault in the beating that left Stallings with a broken eye socket. The conviction can be reduced to a misdemeanor if he successfully completes probation.

A second count of gross misdemeanor misconduct of a public officer or employee was dismissed as part of a plea deal with the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, which prosecuted the case. Stetson, 35, can never again be a law enforcement officer in Minnesota.

Renegotiated deal

Stetson had reached an agreement with the prosecution in May, admitting that he “crossed the line, went too far” when he assaulted Stallings and that his force was “unreasonable,” “unauthorized by the law” and “outside of the scope of [his] role as a police officer.” That deal called for a stay of adjudication for two years on the felony charge.

But Stallings said that was not enough and filed a formal objection to the deal in court. At the very least, Stallings wrote, Stetson should be “convicted for the felony conduct that is captured on video.”

On Monday, Hennepin County District Judge Shereen Askalani said she reviewed a presentence investigation and concluded “there are no special circumstances that would justify a stay of adjudication on the felony charge.” She said she notified the prosecution and Stetson and his attorney, Fred Bruno, and the parties then reached a renegotiated plea deal, which added the 15 days in the workhouse. Stetson is eligible for work release and may be allowed to serve the time on home electronic monitoring.

Stetson must complete an anger management class and letter of apology, which was filed in court in May.

Stetson said Monday he reaffirmed his guilty plea and the apology, adding, “I accept responsibility for my actions and the sentence of this court.”

Attorneys Chris Madel, left, and Fred Bruno, right, stand by the side of former Minneapolis police Officer Justin Stetson. (Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Star Tribune via AP, Pool)

Officers in unmarked van

Stetson and other officers were enforcing a curfew the night of May 30, 2020, when his group spotted four people in a Lake Street parking lot.

One was Stallings, an Army veteran with a permit to carry a gun. The officers opened fire with rubber bullets. One hit Stallings in the chest.

Stallings then fired three shots at the officers’ unmarked van but didn’t hurt anyone. He argued that he thought civilians had attacked him, and that he fired in self-defense.

When Stallings realized they were police, he dropped his gun and lay on the ground. Stetson kicked him in the face and in the head, then punched Stallings multiple times and slammed his head into the pavement, even after Stallings obeyed Stetson’s command to place his hands behind his back, according to the complaint. A sergeant finally told him to stop. The incident was caught on police body camera video.

“I offered no resistance,” Stallings, 31, said Monday in court. “I was terrified, and assumed I would not survive this attack, but I did.”

An expert use-of-force review concluded that Stetson’s use of force was “unreasonable, excessive, and contrary to generally accepted police practice.”

“My life was upended by Officer Stetson,” Stallings said. “Every aspect of my life was irrevocably altered by his choices. He took the oath to serve and protect our community.”

Starting a nonprofit

A graduate of Gordon Parks High School, Stallings was a truck driver living in St. Paul’s Frogtown neighborhood at the time of the assault. He said he moved to Houston, Texas, because of fear of retaliation.

He recently started a nonprofit called the Good Apple Initiative that aims to “shift the culture of policing and justice in Minnesota.”

“My experience left me with two choices: move forward with my life and feel angry and bitter and distrust, or take action,” he said. “I choose to take action.”

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