Judge raises threat of jail as he holds Trump in contempt for statements
NEW YORK — Former U.S. president Donald Trump was held in contempt of court on Tuesday and fined $9,000 US for repeatedly violating a gag order that barred him from making public statements about witnesses, jurors and some others connected to his New York hush-money case. If he does it again, the judge warned, he could be jailed.
Prosecutors had alleged 10 violations, but New York Judge Juan M. Merchan found there were nine. Trump stared down at the table in front of him as the judge read the ruling, frowning slightly. He didn’t speak to reporters as he entered and left the court during trial breaks.
It was a stinging rebuke of the Republican’s insistence that he was exercising his free speech rights and a reminder that he’s a criminal defendant subject to the harsh realities of trial procedure.
The judge’s remarkable threat to jail a former president signalled that Trump’s already precarious legal standing could further spiral depending on his behaviour during the remainder of the trial.
Merchan wrote that he is “keenly aware of, and protective of,” Trump’s First Amendment rights, “particularly given his candidacy for the office of president of the United States.”
“It is critically important that defendant’s legitimate free speech rights not be curtailed, that he be able to fully campaign for the office which he seeks and that he be able to respond and defend himself against political attacks,” Merchan wrote.
Still, he warned that the court would not tolerate “wilful violations of its lawful orders and that if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, it will impose an incarceratory punishment.”
With that statement, the judge drew nearer the spectre of Trump becoming the first former president of the United States behind bars.
After he was banned from Twitter following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by his supporters, Trump launched his own platform, where his posts wouldn’t be blocked or restricted. He has long tried to distance himself from messages he has amplified to his millions of followers by insisting they’re “only retweets.”
But he does have experience with gag orders, which were also imposed in his civil fraud trial. After he was found to have violated those orders, he paid more than $15,000 in fines.
Tuesday’s ruling came at the start of the second week of testimony in the historic case, in which Manhattan prosecutors argue Trump and his associates took part in an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 presidential campaign by purchasing and then burying seamy stories.
The payouts went to a doorman with a torrid yarn; exPlayboy model Karen McDougal, who had accusations of an affair; and to porn performer Stormy Daniels, who alleged a sexual encounter with Trump.
Trump has pleaded not guilty and says the stories are all fake.