The former president can attend the event on May 17, Judge Juan Merchan said Tuesday.
The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s so-called “hush-money” trial said Tuesday that he can attend his son’s high school graduation in May.
At a hearing on Tuesday morning, Judge Juan Merchan granted a request from President Trump’s attorneys asking the judge to allow him to appear at his son Barron’s May 17 high graduation. The judge previously had not allowed the former president to attend a Supreme Court hearing in Washington, which occurred last week.
“We picked the jury pretty quickly,” the judge said, adding: “So Mr. Trump can certainly attend that date.”
It is not clear whether the trial will continue on May 17 while President Trump is in Florida to attend the event.
Several weeks ago, the former president was critical of the judge after he did not issue a ruling on whether he could attend his son’s high school graduation and for not allowing him to attend the Supreme Court hearing. The judge also warned President Trump that he needs to show up every day the trial is in session or there “will be an arrest.”
“I was looking forward to that graduation with his mother and father there,” President Trump told reporters at the time. “It looks like the judge isn’t going to allow me to escape this scam. It’s a scam trial.”
Also Tuesday, Judge Merchan found President Trump in contempt of the court for what he said were gag order violations for issuing multiple posts on social media and via his campaign website. He fined the former president $1,000 for nine posts, $9,000 in total, and ordered him to remove the posts, although he found that a post in which President Trump called witnesses Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels “sleaze bags” wasn’t in violation of the order.
If President Trump continues to make posts that are said to violate the gag order, the judge warned, he could face incarceration. The judge also lamented that state law prohibits him from fining the former president more.
