Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over the trial in Manhattan on charges against Donald Trump brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, this morning again found Trump in contempt of court. Merchan fined him another $1,000. The judge’s decision was entered as the fourth week of Trump’s criminal trial began. This was the 10th instance of Merchan finding Trump in contempt of court for violating the gag order Merchan imposed. The gag order is designed to prevent Trump from intimidating witness and jurors.
Trump is on trial for 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels that also allegedly constituted a violation of election laws.
Merchan told Trump that he did not want to put him in jail but raised the possibility of that happening if Trump continues to violate the gag order. Merchan gave Trump until Friday to pay the additional fine and until 2:15 today to remove from his internet site Truth Social the posts he made that violated the gag order.
“It is apparent that monetary fines have not, and will not, suffice to deter Defendant from violating this Court’s lawful orders. THEREFORE, Defendant is hereby put on notice that if appropriate and warranted, future violations of its lawful orders will be punishable by incarceration,” Merchan wrote in his order.
“Defendant does not dispute that he made the statements,” Merchan said in his order. “Rather, he advances several defenses to support his claim that his actions do not constitute a willful violation of the Expanded Order (gag order) and that he should therefore not be found to be in criminal contempt. He argues, for example, that he did not willfully violate the Expanded Order because the posts constitute protected political speech made in response to attacks by Michael Cohen.” Cohen is Trump’s former attorney.
Merchan noted that Trump’s latest violation of the gag order dealt with the jury and Trump complained that 95% of the jury are Democrats.
CNN Newsource, in a story by Jeremy Herb, Kara Scannell, Lauren del Valle and Eric Levenson, quoted CNN legal analyst Karen Friedman Agnifilo as saying that Merchan has options that don’t involve putting Trump in prison. For instance, he could start with a short amount of time in detention in the courthouse.
“He has several options: for example, he could put him in for a few hours. There is a holding cell behind the courtroom,” she said. “He could put him in for the day. He could put him in over lunch. He could do it like that, as a graduated step towards putting him in overnight.”
When entering the courtroom this morning, Trump again said that he did nothing wrong.
