A judge fined former President Donald Trump an additional $1,000 on Monday for violating the gag order in his New York hush money trial, prompting the judge to warn future violations may result in incarceration.
Trump was already fined $9,000 for nine separate violations raised by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, and the former president has vowed to appeal Judge Juan Merchan’s findings — especially surrounding breaches that were the result of Trump reposting other people’s online posts. Trump, the first former president to be a defendant in a criminal trial, was previously warned that future violations could result in jail time.
In the new contempt finding against Trump, Merchan again warned Trump that he is “hereby put on notice that if appropriate and warranted, future violations of its lawful orders will be punishable by incarceration,” according to the order.
At the same time as the contempt order’s release, Merchan warned Trump from the bench that any future violations will force him to consider “a jail sentence.”
“The magnitude of that decision is not lost on me,” Merchan said, noting that he worries about taking “that step” for Trump, referring to his Secret Service protection. “Your continued willful violation of the court’s order…constitutes a direct attack…and will not be allowed to continue…It is not allowed to continue.”
The former president took aim once again at the gag order on Monday as he walked into the courtroom to begin the fourth week of the trial.
“The judge has gagged me and I’m not allowed to talk about, I guess, his total conflict. The judge is totally conflicted,” Trump said. “And I’m not supposed to be talking about it, but I am allowed to say the judge is totally conflicted. He’s taken away my constitutional right to speak.”
On Thursday, Merchan weighed four new allegations from prosecutors that Trump violated the gag order that prevents him from criticizing witnesses and the jury. The comments at issue came in an April 22 interview on Real America’s Voice in which Trump claimed the judge was “rushing the trial like crazy.”
“Nobody’s ever seen a thing go like this. That jury was picked so fast – 95% Democrats. The area’s mostly all Democrat. You think of it as a — just a purely Democrat area. It’s a very unfair situation that I can tell you,” Trump said.
Merchan said those comments violated the gag order’s provisions against making public statements about the “jury and how it was selected.”
Prosecutors have alleged on numerous occasions that it is Trump’s intent is to continue willfully violating his gag order, while Trump maintains that its application to him as a presidential candidate prevents him from responding to criticism and is in violation of his First Amendment rights.
“Because we prefer to minimize disruptions to this proceeding, we are not yet seeking jail,” prosecutor Chris Conroy said last week at Trump’s second gag order hearing.
A new witness took the stand in the criminal hush money trial on Monday: former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney.
Trump’s former aide Hope Hicks testified Friday about the fallout from the Access Hollywood tape released during his 2016 campaign and the Trump White House’s response to new stories about hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal that had been made during the campaign.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Prosecutors in the Democratic district attorney’s office said Trump took part in an illegal conspiracy to undermine the 2016 election and hatched an unlawful plan to suppress negative information, which included a $130,000 hush money payment handled by his former attorney, Michael Cohen. Defense attorneys have argued that Trump was not directly involved in structuring the payments and have noted that suppressing negative information is not illegal.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to the 34 counts of falsifying business records.
