Judge Juan Merchan found the former president in contempt of the court during a Tuesday morning hearing.
Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday was fined and held in contempt of court by Judge Juan Merchan for what he said were violations of a gag order prohibiting him from discussing certain individuals involved in the so-called “hush-money” trial.
Prosecutors had sought $1,000 fines for about a dozen Truth Social posts that the former president had made in relation to the case, while Judge Merchan fined him $9,000 for nine posts. He also ordered President Trump to remove seven “offending posts” from Truth Social and two “offending posts” from his 2024 campaign website by 2:15 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
If he doesn’t remove the posts or continues to commit alleged “willful violations,” he could face “incarceratory punishment,” suggesting possible jail time, the judge’s order said.
According to the order, the “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 incarceratory punishment.”
The judge also suggested that he wanted to fine President Trump more but noted that state law limits fining him a maximum of $1,000 per violation.
Such an amount “may suffice in most instances to protect the dignity of the judicial system, to compel respect for its mandates and to punish the offender for disobeying a court order, it unfortunately will not achieve the desired result in those instances” where a person held in contempt “can easily afford such a fine,” he wrote.
Judge Merchan wrote it would be preferable if he could impose “a fine more commensurate with the wealth” of the person being fined. “Because this Court is not cloaked with such discretion, it must therefore consider whether in some instances, jail may be a necessary punishment,” he added.
The judge also found that President Trump’s April 10 post referring to former lawyer Michael Cohen and porn performer Stormy Daniels as “sleaze bags” was not a gag order violation. He said President Trump’s contention that he was responding to previous posts by Mr. Cohen “is sufficient to give” him pause “as to whether the people have met their burden” as to that post.
But nine other posts “attack the credibility of arguably two of the more high-profile witnesses in this case,” the judge wrote.
The former president and his lawyers had argued that Judge Merchan’s gag order, which prohibits the former president from speaking about two potential witnesses and several other individuals, violated his First Amendment rights. Further, they have argued that because he is the presumptive Republican nominee for president for the 2024 election, he should enjoy broad latitude to speak about political issues.
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