Trump won’t keep quiet about the trial: judge fines ex-president $9,000 and threatens with imprisonment

By ignoring the gag order, Trump is guilty of contempt of court. Public prosecutor Matthew Colangelo therefore requested the maximum fine of $1,000 per offensive publication last week, something Merchan followed him in.

The judge also ordered Trump to remove nine “offensive posts” published between April 10 and 17 by 2:15 p.m. (8:15 p.m. in Belgium). Seven of those posts are on Truth Social, the social network of which he himself is the driving force, the other two on his campaign website.

Merchan also warns Trump not to tolerate “continued deliberate violations of his lawful orders” and will “impose prison time if necessary.” Donald Trump, who must be present in the courtroom during the trial, did not react when the judge read his decision.

The judge had imposed a temporary gag order on Trump in late March to ensure that the ex-president no longer makes public statements about witnesses in the hush money case, jurors, members of the court and their families and attorneys other than Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Previous statements Trump made about those individuals were “threatening, inflammatory and derogatory” and pose a risk to the administration of justice, Judge Merchan said.

Yet in recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly attacked parties involved in the lawsuit on social media. Most of the attacks were aimed at Michael Cohen, his former lawyer but now his arch-enemy and the most important witness at the trial. The judge himself was also punished: “The highly controversial, to remain friendly, Judge Juan Merchan has taken away my constitutional right to freedom of expression. Anyone can speak and lie about me, but I can’t defend myself. This is a show trial, the judge should recuse himself!” Trump said a week ago.

“Did he cheat on Melania?”

The criminal trial in New York, which has entered its third week, revolves around the payment of $130,000 in hush money to Stormy Daniels, who wanted to reveal during the 2016 presidential campaign that she had had an affair with Trump. The ex-president is said to have repaid that money to his then lawyer Michael Cohen with campaign funds, and to have that payment included in the accounts as “legal costs”. In total, Trump is accused of 34 criminal offenses.

Stormy Daniels’ former attorney, Keith Davidson, was questioned during the trial on Tuesday. He had negotiated the hush money for Daniels with Michael Cohen after her manager asked him to handle that deal. “It’s going to be the easiest deal you ever do in your life,” she said, according to Davidson. “You just need to talk to that son of a bitch Cohen.”

According to Davidson, the leaking of Trump’s “grab ’em by the pussy” statements just before had a huge impact on interest in Daniels’ claims. The tabloids with which Davidson previously negotiated about buying up stories subsequently saw the alleged affair with Daniels as the nail in the coffin for Trump. This had to be evident from text messages that were quoted in court.

Cohen hurriedly set up a new shell company in October 2016 to transfer $130,000 to Stormy Daniels’ lawyer. Cohen’s former banker Gary Farro came to testify about this. Cohen told Farro that the money was for a hasty real estate transaction. First Republic Bank closed all of Cohen’s accounts except his loans when news of the hush money broke, according to Farro.