Donald Trump received the clearest threat of jail time yet in his New York criminal trial after a judge said on Tuesday that “jail may be a necessary punishment” for future gag order violations from the former president, a statement legal experts say could have sweeping consequences on his 2024 presidential election bid.
Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over the criminal hush money trial against Trump, found him in contempt for nine violations of his gag order due to various social media posts about witnesses in the trial, with a fine of $1,000 for each instance and an order to delete the posts. Trump, the Republican front-runner to face off against President Joe Biden, has decried his four criminal cases as “election interference,” a claim that legal experts told the Washington Examiner could be authenticated if Merchan decides to jail him over social media posts before the trial’s expected end in late May.
