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.
The judge addressed that concern specifically and said that when $1k isn’t sufficient to cow a contemnor, detention should be imposed.
This is key. If he jailed him right away, his attorneys would call for a mistrial saying the judge was biased against him and they would probably succeed in getting the trial thrown out. It would still go on with another judge, but when the tactic is delay, they win.
This is the first step towards jail for contempt. There can be no doubt Trump is maliciously violating the gag order.
That said, I have little doubt some 11th hour fuckery will happen to prevent him from being jailed.
The Supreme Court will stop all of the democracy dismantling they are doing to say the do-nad can’t be imprisoned.