The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York held him in contempt of court on Tuesday for violating a gag order that limits what he can say about those involved in the case, and warned him that he could be jailed if he violates the order again.
Judge Juan Merchan ruled Trump in contempt for nine violations of his gag order, with a fine of $1,000 for each instance. He warned in the decision that he would not tolerate further violations of the order and said “if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances,” he would impose “an incarceratory punishment” on the former president.
The judge explained that because the fines, which are limited by state law, were relatively little in comparison to Trump’s wealth, they might be unlikely to deter the former president from abiding by the court’s order. While Merchan said he would prefer to impose commensurately larger fines, he instead had to consider “whether in some instances, jail may be a necessary punishment.”
The gag order prohibits the former president from “making or directing others to make public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses concerning their potential participation in the investigation or in this criminal proceeding,” and “public statements about any prospective juror or any juror.”
Merchan said Tuesday that his order was “lawful and unambiguous,” and that Trump violated it with social media posts about witnesses and public comments about jurors. He ordered Trump to remove seven of the posts at issue from his Truth Social account and two other offending posts from his campaign website by 2:15 p.m. Tuesday.
The judge also said in response to Trump’s complaints about the comments of expected witnesses Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels outside of court that he might consider modifying the gag order to remove them from its protections if he finds it necessary in the future.
Cohen said in a statement in response to the judge’s decision that the small fine “is irrelevant. Judge Merchan’s decision elucidates that this behavior will not be tolerated and that no one is above the law.”
Merchan had indicated on April 23 that he was not impressed by the arguments from the defense, telling one of Trump’s attorneys that he was “losing all credibility” when he suggested that Trump was exercising caution to comply with the gag order.
Prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office had accused Trump of violating Merchan’s April 1 order at least 10 times since it went into effect, including a post that called expected witnesses Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels “sleaze bags.” Another appeared to be a quote from Fox News personality Jesse Watters that read, “They are catching undercover Liberal Activists lying to the Judge in order to get on the Trump Jury.”
The DA sought the maximum $1,000 fine for each post they considered a violation, along with an order that Trump remove the posts. Prosecutors had also asked Merchan to warn Trump that any future violations could be met with additional fines and up to 30 days in jail.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records related to his reimbursement to Cohen for the lawyer’s hush money payment to Daniels in the closing days of the 2016 campaign. Daniels claims she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, an allegation he denies.
Trump faces up to four years in prison if he’s convicted.
via: NBC News
