Donald Trump has been found in criminal contempt of court and fined $9,000 (€8,400) for repeatedly attacking potential witnesses and jurors in his Manhattan “hush money” case, in violation of a gag order imposed on the former president and presumptive Republican nominee in his first criminal trial.
Justice Juan Merchan on Tuesday ruled that nine statements made on Mr Trump’s Truth Social social media platform and his presidential campaign website had violated the order, and imposed a fine of $1,000 apiece – the maximum financial penalty allowed by New York law.
He warned that Mr Trump could be sent to jail if he continued to defy the order, “if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances”.
The finding marks the second time Mr Trump has landed in trouble with a New York court for his public statements. The 77-year-old was last year fined $10,000 after lambasting a female court clerk in the New York attorney general’s civil fraud trial, which ultimately led to a half-billion dollar judgment against Mr Trump and his business empire. He was also found in contempt for failing to turn over documents in that investigation.
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The presidential candidate has also been partially gagged by the judge overseeing a federal election interference case against him in Washington.
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Mr Trump has increasingly tested the limits of court-imposed constraints as he steps up campaigning, calling the charges against him a “hoax” and a “witch-hunt”, which has highlighted the challenges for the New York court in reining in a defendant who is also a presidential candidate.
In the past few weeks, Mr Trump has assailed his former fixer Michael Cohen, who is expected to be a key witness at the “hush money” trial, referring to him as a “serial perjurer”. He has also described Mr Cohen and porn actor Stormy Daniels as “sleaze bags”, calling their credibility into question. Ms Daniels is also likely to testify at the ongoing trial, which is entering its third week.
Mr Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records relating to $130,000 paid to Ms Daniels in the run-up to the 2016 election, which Manhattan prosecutors said was used to buy her silence over an alleged extramarital affair.
Mr Trump had separately posted a quote from Fox News host Jesse Watters on Truth Social, claiming that “undercover Liberal Activists” were attempting to get seated as jurors in the Manhattan case.
His legal team had presented a series of defences for the posts, arguing that Mr Trump was merely responding to “political attacks” and was thus protected by the US constitution’s first amendment, and that in many cases he was merely reposting comments made by others.
But Justice Merchan found that in all but one instance identified by Manhattan prosecutors – the “sleaze bags” post, which may have been a response to comments by Mr Cohen – Mr Trump had breached the order.
He ordered they be deleted by Tuesday afternoon. Mr Trump appeared to have removed the offending posts later in the day.
In a written ruling, Justice Merchan lamented that the fine “unfortunately will not achieve the desired result in those instances where [Mr Trump] can easily afford such a fine”, but said he was constrained by New York law.
However, in cases where a monetary fine is ineffective, the court could “consider” incarcerating a defendant instead, as “jail may be a necessary punishment”, Justice Merchan added. Under New York law, criminal contempt is also punishable by up to 30 days in jail.
Mr Trump, who faces three other criminal cases, sat silently as Justice Merchan found him in contempt. On his way into the courtroom, he had called the trial a “disgraceful case” and “a disgrace to the New York City courts”.
Soon after the contempt order was handed down, a New York appeals court denied Mr Trump’s attempt to remove Justice Merchan from the case due to his or his family’s alleged ties to the Democratic Party. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2024
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