Judge Rules On Trump’s Alleged Gag Order Violations In Hush Money Trial
New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan determined Tuesday that Donald Trump violated the terms of a gag order intended to prevent him from lobbing public attacks on people involved in his criminal hush money trial, warning the former president he could face jail time if he continues to ignore the order.
Trump “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,” Merchan wrote in his ruling.
Merchan said the former president would be fined a total of $9,000, as the prosecution met the burden of proof for nine of the 10 incidents that they alleged to have violated the directive. Trump would need to make that payment by Friday, the ruling states.
Merchan said while the fine in this case is not sufficient to achieve its purpose given the wealth of the defendant, he does not have the discretion to increase the financial penalty, requiring him to “consider whether in some instances, jail may be a necessary punishment.”
“While $1,000 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 the contemnor can easily afford such a fine,” Merchan wrote.
Prosecutors argued at a hearing with the judge that Trump violated the order 10 times through derisive social media posts and posts to his official campaign website, putting witnesses in the case at risk of feeling intimidated.
“What happened here is precisely what the order was designed to prevent and the defendant doesn’t care,” prosecuting attorney Christopher Conroy said during the hearing last Tuesday.
While Merchan rejected Trump’s argument that all the statements brought up by the prosecution were made in response to political attacks against him and were therefore allowed, he said one of Trump’s Truth Social posts could potentially fall under that category, ruling that the prosecution did not meet the burden of proof in that instance.
In the April 10 post, Trump had praised Michael Avenatti, an attorney who once represented porn star Stormy Daniels, “for revealing the truth about two sleaze bags who have, with their lies and misrepresentations, cost our Country dearly!” in reference to Daniels and Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal fixer, who are both expected to testify in the trial.
Trump’s lawyers referred to two social media posts by Cohen, one of which mentioned the possibility of Avenatti receiving a presidential pardon by Trump if gets reelected in November.
While it’s unclear whether Trump’s comment is “in fact, a response to these two posts, the tenuous correlation is sufficient to give this Court pause as to whether the People have met their burden as to this Exhibit,” Merchan wrote.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged the former president with 34 counts of falsifying business records in relation to his 2016 payoff to Daniels, who alleges she had an affair with Trump while he was married. Trump denies the affair and has pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors urged the judge to fine Trump $1,000 per alleged violation. He was similarly fined at his state-level civil fraud trial; a judge told him to fork over $15,000 for violating a gag order in that case.
The other posts that landed Trump in hot water included a claim he amplified from Fox News anchor Jesse Watters, who said “they are catching undercover Liberal Activists lying to the Judge in order to get on the Trump Jury.” Whether reposts would be treated the same as Trump’s own original content in the eyes of the court was subject to extensive debate during the hearing last week. The judge did not appear amenable to the idea that reposts did not have the same effect as originals.
“This is not a repost but rather the Defendant’s own words,” Merchan wrote. “Mr. Watters uttered a statement which Defendant altered, placed in quotes, attributed to Mr. Watters and posted. The purpose being to call into question the legitimacy of the jury selection process in this case. This constitutes a clear violation of the Expanded Order and requires no further analysis.”
In other posts, Trump said the trial represented “Communism at its worst,” called Merchan a “HIGHLY CONFLICTED & CORRUPT JUDGE,” described the court and Bragg as “animals” and said Cohen was a “sleaze bag.”
Trump has also been smearing Cohen as a liar since opening statements were made in court last Monday, even though Cohen is expected to be a key witness for the prosecution.
