NEW YORK — Judge Juan Merchan on Tuesday said he would “reserve” his decision on whether to fine Donald Trump over alleged gag order violations in the former president’s hush money trial.
Manhattan prosecutors said Trump had violated the gag order in the hush money case more than 10 times, arguing that his violations amount to a “very real threat” that should result in at least $10,000 in fees. Much of the defense’s rebuttal on Tuesday morning focused on the fact that many of the Trump posts in question were merely “reposts” of news articles on social media.
“Judge, each of the 10 posts that I just handed the court” violated the gag order, prosecutor Chris Conroy said. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the elected Democrat who brought the 34-count indictment against Trump, says the former president should be fined $1,000 for each violation.
Defense attorney Todd Blanche conceded that some of Trump’s reposts got “too close to the line” but were ultimately not a violation of the order. But Merchan said if that were true, Trump’s team should have told the judge that “my client is thinking of reposting something.”
After Blanche sat back down, he appeared to pass a note to Trump.
Conroy also argued to the court Tuesday that Trump had violated the gag order on Monday “right here in the hallway outside” the courthouse after opening arguments began in the case.
“The defendant has violated this order repeatedly and hasn’t stopped,” Conroy added.
Blanche countered Conroy’s argument, saying, “There was absolutely no willful violation of the gag order.”
“President Trump does, in fact, know what the gag order allows him to do and not allow him to do,” Blanche said.
Merchan put a gag order on Trump because he contends the former president has a history of making “threatening, inflammatory, denigrating” comments against people at all levels of the justice system, including jurors.
The order prevents Trump from making statements about attorneys, court staff members, or family members of prosecutors, lawyers, court staff members, and the Manhattan district attorney.
The defense argued that at least three of Trump’s posts at issue were in direct response to recent extrajudicial comments made by witnesses, including the former president’s attorney and fixer Michael Cohen and porn star Stormy Daniels, both of whom are at the core of the case.
Michael Avenatti, a former attorney to Daniels, posted on April 10 how his former client and Cohen have been publicly “talking s***” about Trump while the former president is gagged, adding that “we can’t be hypocrites about the 1st Amendment.” Trump reposted that comment by Avenatti, saying “thank you” for “revealing the truth about two sleaze bags,” referring to Cohen and Daniels.
“To be clear, Mr. Avenatti has been saying things about this publicly. There’s no dispute that Mr. Cohen has repeatedly talked about how President Trump acted,” Blanche said, arguing these comments were political and not in violation of the gag order.
Prosecutors also said Trump reposted Fox News host Jesse Watters, citing that post as one of their 10 examples. Trump had made a post quoting Watters as saying, “They are catching undercover liberal activists lying to the judge in order to get on the jury.” The district attorney’s office noted that one day after Watters’s segment on the original Juror 2, she changed her mind and said she couldn’t serve.
Merchan noted that Trump added words to the end of Watters’s post. “Your client manipulated” what was said in the segment and “put it in quotes,” Merchan said.
Blanche conceded that the Watters quote in question was not from a repost. Merchan responded by telling Blanche, “You’re losing all credibility with the court.”
Earlier in the gag order hearing, Conroy pushed back against the Trump team’s argument that the defendant’s “reposts” on social media did not violate a gag order. Conroy said that contention “flies in the face of common sense.”
“We are not yet seeking an incarceratory penalty,” the prosecutor said while claiming that the “defendant seems to be angling for that.”
Merchan pressed Blanche to show him what case law he has to support that reposts of others’ comments do not violate the gag order.
Blanche replied, “I don’t have case law … but it’s just common sense, your honor.”
Trump took to his Truth Social account after the contentious hearing, saying that “HIGHLY CONFLICTED, TO PUT IT MILDLY, JUDGE JUAN MERCHAN, HAS TAKEN AWAY MY CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH.”
“EVERYBODY IS ALLOWED TO TALK AND LIE ABOUT ME, BUT I AM NOT ALLOWED TO DEFEND MYSELF. THIS IS A KANGAROO COURT, AND THE JUDGE SHOULD RECUSE HIMSELF!” Trump wrote.
Jurors were not in the courtroom for the gag order arguments but returned in the afternoon to hear more testimony from witness David Pecker, an ex-publisher of the National Enquirer who allegedly helped broker a deal with Daniels.
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Trump faces four separate criminal cases as he runs again for the presidency. He is the first former president to go on criminal trial.
Witness testimony began again on Tuesday shortly after 11 a.m. The court will adjourn at 2 p.m. in observance of the Passover holiday and will resume on Thursday, Merchan said.
