Prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office accused Trump of violating the gag order numerous times since it went into effect.
The judge presiding over Donald Trump’s hush money case on Tuesday held the former president in criminal contempt over a series of posts on Truth Social that he said violated a gag order barring any attacks on jurors and witnesses.
Judge Juan Merchan ruled Trump in contempt for nine violations of his gag order, with a fine of $1,000 for each instance. The order prohibits the former president from “making or directing others to make public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses concerning their potential participation in the investigation or in this criminal proceeding,” and “public statements about any prospective juror or any juror.”
Merchan had indicated on April 23 that he was not impressed by the arguments from the defense, telling one of Trump’s attorneys that he was “losing all credibility” when he suggested that Trump was exercising caution to comply with the gag order.
Sadly, it’s a limitation of the legal system. The judge even admitted in his ruling on this that he acknowledges that the monetary punishment is inadequate considering Donald Trump’s wealth and status. He threatened jail time for future incidents.
The point is that as much as any sane person wants to see Trump behind bars, if you just skip straight to locking him up, he will use that as grounds for a mistrial. I’d rather see justice done slowly, him given every warning and every opportunity to correct his bad behavior. Yes, it’s not fair that he gets treated with kid gloves time and time again while a street level drug dealer would just get held without bond, say nothing of what would happen if they were to be charged with criminal contempt, but without going through the whole process Trump will just use the temporary incarceration to paint himself as a victim of political persecution and pivot it to his advantage when he inevitably appeals the guilty verdict.