United States: The judge hearing Donald Trump’s court case in New York ordered the ex-president to be placed in contempt of court on Tuesday. It was done for violating a gag order, which puts a limit on what he can say regarding others involved in the case.
Trump was even warned that he could be sent to jail for violating the order again.
More about the judgment
Judge Juan Merchan stated while announcing the judgment that Trump violated the order not less than nine times in the past few weeks when he posted on his Truth Social platform and campaign website. Moreover, many of those posts targeted Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels, who were the key witnesses in the case.
As a punishment, Trump was fined USD 9,000, or USD 1,000, for each violation and also was given an order to delete the posts. Therefore, all of the nine posts were taken down with immediate effect on Tuesday afternoon.
The judge made an announcement of the ruling from the bench along with a written order. He wrote that Trump “violated the Order by making social media posts about known witnesses pertaining to their participation in this criminal proceeding and by making public statements about jurors in this criminal proceeding.”
Merchan also wrote that New York law doesn’t give permission to fine a person more than USD 1,000 per violation, which “unfortunately will not achieve the desired result in those instances where the [defendant] can easily afford such a fine.”
He even mentioned that higher fines are more appropriate for those cases, but since there is no provision to have such discretion, the court “must therefore consider whether, in some instances, jail may be a necessary punishment.”
Therefore, he concluded, accompanied by a warning letter to Trump: “Defendant is hereby warned that the Court will not tolerate continued willful violations of its lawful orders and that if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, it will impose an incarceration punishment.”
More about the gag order
Originally, Merchan issued a gag order in March before the trial took place. It therefore restrained Trump from making comments on supposed to witnesses, potential jurors, court staff, lawyers for the prosecution and others connected to the case.
Additionally, the judge later broadened the order by including his own family members after Trump made an attack on his daughter regarding her consulting work with Democratic candidates and progressive causes.
However, the gag order does not retrain Trump from making critical comments for Merchan or Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney.
In a court hearing that took place last week for the posts, an attorney on Bragg’s team, Chris Conroy, said they “willfully and flagrantly” violated the order.
Prosecutor Chris Conroy added, “No one is off limits to the defendant. He can attack and seek to intimidate anyone he wants to in service to himself.” He even asked the judge to impose a USD 1,000 fine on each post and order Trump to take them down.
Moreover, Merchan said at one point, “Mr. Blanche, you’re losing all credibility. I have to tell you that right now. You’re losing all credibility with the court,” as CBS News reported.
Overall, Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records, which were related to reimbursements for a USD 130,000 “hush money” payment to Daniels, who is an adult film star. Daniels said that she had a sexual encounter with Trump, however, to which Trump denies.
Trump has pleaded not guilty on account of all charges in the case and even repeatedly protested the gag order as “unconstitutional.”