Judge in hush money trial threatens Trump with jail after holding him in contempt for violating gag order
The judge in Donald Trump’s hush money case held the former president in criminal contempt over posts on Truth Social that he said violated a gag order barring any attacks on jurors and witnesses and warned Trump he could be jailed for further violations.
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 and warned Trump he could be jailed for further violations.
Judge Juan Merchan ruled Trump in contempt for nine violations of his gag order, with a fine of $1,000 for each instance. He warned in the decision that he would not tolerate further violations of the order and said "if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances," he would impose "an incarceratory punishment" on the former president.
The judge explained that because the fines, which are limited by state law, were relatively little in comparison to Trump's wealth, they might be unlikely to deter the former president from abiding by the court's order. Merchan said that while he would prefer to impose commensurately larger fines, he instead had to consider "whether in some instances, jail may be a necessary punishment."
The gag 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 said Tuesday that his order was "lawful and unambiguous" and that Trump violated it with social media posts about witnesses and public comments about jurors. He ordered Trump to remove seven of the posts at issue from his Truth Social account and two other offending posts from his campaign website by 2:15 p.m. Tuesday.
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