Judge Again Finds Donald Trump In Contempt And Warns Of Jail Time For Violating Gag Order
A judge again found Donald Trump in contempt of court for violations of a partial gag order.
Trump was fined $1,000 over a statement he made attacking the jury in the case.
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Read the latest Trump contempt order.
The judge in Trump’s hush money case, Juan Merchan, also warned the former president of possible jail time.
“The last thing I want to do is put you in jail,” Merchan said. “You are the former president of the United States and possibly the next president as well.”
To jail him, Merchan said, “would be disruptive to the proceedings,” adding that it would pose a challenge as well for the Secret Service.
“The magnitude of such a decision is not lost on me,” the judge said. “But at the end of the day, I have a job to do.” He told Trump that his “continued, willful violations” of the gag order “constitute a direct attack on the rule of law. I cannot allow that to continue.”
Merchan fined Trump $9,000 last week for nine violations of the gag order, which restricts the former president from commenting on potential witnesses, court staff, the judge’s family and most members of the prosecution team.
The judge’s latest ruling was over a Real America’s Voice interview in which Trump said, “You know [the judge] is 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.”
Merchan wrote that Trump “violated the Order by making public statements about the jury and how it was selected. In doing so, Defendant not only called into question the integrity, and therefore the legitimacy of these proceedings, but again raised the specter of fear for the safety of the jurors and of their loved ones.”
Earlier today, in the hallway outside the courtroom, Trump did make reference to witnesses as he talked about the case against him. He said that the New York district attorney has “no case. They absolutely have no case. It’s a political hoax. It’s election interference, everthing they can do. Even the witnesses they want to bring up, they have nothing to do with the case.”
After the jury was seated, the trial resumed this morning with Jeffrey McConney, the former senior vice president and comptroller for the Trump Organization.
More to come.
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