On Tuesday the judge overseeing Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial fined the former US president $9,000 for contempt of court. ‘I would consider jailing him if he continued to violate a gag order’, said the Judge.
Justice Juan Merchan said in a written order that the fine was not enough to serve as a deterrent for Donald Trump and mourned he did not have the authority to impose a higher penalty.
Merchan wrote, ‘Defendant is warned that the Court will not tolerate violations of its lawful orders and that if necessary under the circumstances, it will impose a punishment’.
Merchan had imposed the gag order to prevent Trump from criticizing witnesses and others involved in the case. The judge fined Trump $1,000 for each of nine online statements that he said violated his order not to criticize witnesses or other participants in the trial. Prosecutors had flagged 10 posts as possible violations.
The posts, made between April 10 and April 17, included an article calling his former lawyer Michael Cohen a serial liar.
Cohen is expected to be a prominent witness in the trial. Another post as per the pundit of media house claimed undercover liberal activists were trying to sneak onto the jury. Merchan refused Trump’s argument that he could not be held liable for reposts of material he did not write himself.
On Thursday Merchan will consider whether to impose penalties for other statements at a hearing. The judge also ordered Trump to remove the statements from his Truth Social account and his campaign website on Tuesday.
Trump said Merchan had taken away his free speech rights. He wrote on TRUTH SOCIAL, ‘I am the only Presidential Candidate in History to be GAGGED. This whole ‘Trial’ is RIGGED’.
Todd Blanche, Trump’s Lawyer has argued that the statements at issue were answers to political attacks, but Merchan noted that Blanche was unable to provide any evidence that the expected witnesses had attacked Trump before he insulted them.
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