While President Trump is charged for breaking the order of gag, he repeatedly uses his rights to freedom of speech in his criminal hush money trial. The title of the article refers to verbatim what the man said, what the law requires, and what the judge ruled as well as what might happen to him.
The presiding judge of Donald Trump’s criminal trial for hush money found the latter guilty of nine counts of violating the court order on Tuesday. She warned him that if he continued this way, he might be sent to jail.
Judge Juan Merchan penalized Trump with a hefty fine of $1000 for each infraction where he publicized witnesses or jurists involved in the case speaking to social media posts. He additionally mandated that he deletes these posts off of the truth social accounts and his campaign websites.
It was Trump who violated the order by posting on social media about witnesses pertaining to their presence in the criminal process and also by publically making recent statements regarding jury members who were participating in the same case.
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Merchan said that a higher fine would be more appropriate for Trump, but that New York law does not allow him to impose a fine greater than $1,000 per violation. The punishment, he said, “unfortunately, will not achieve the desired result in those instances where the [defendant] can easily afford such a fine.”
The judge warned Trump that as a result of the minimal financial penalty, any additional violations would force him to “consider whether in some instances, jail may be a necessary punishment.”
“The defendant is hereby warned that the Court will not tolerate continued willful violations of its lawful orders and that if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, it will impose an incarceratory punishment,” he said.
Trump will face another gag order hearing on Thursday, where the district attorney’s office will present four more instances in which they say Trump violated the gag order.
How We Got Here:
May 8, 2023: The court issued a protective order that barred Trump from revealing any discovery that the defense received from the prosecution, including names and any identifying information of staff at the district attorney’s office.
“It’s certainly not a gag order,” Merchan told Trump’s attorneys at the time after they voiced concerns that the order would curb the former president’s First Amendment rights.
February 26, 2024: The district attorney’s office filed a motion seeking a narrow gag order that prevented Trump from making statements that might threaten or intimidate jurors, prosecutors, witnesses and court staff. They packed the motion with examples of Trump verbally attacking people involved in various other cases brought against him, both past and present.
March 26, 2024: Merchan granted the gag order, which prohibited Trump from commenting about witnesses, district attorney counsel and staff or their families, court staff or their families and jurors. Merchan and Bragg were not included in the gag order. Trump’s attorneys argued that he needs to be able to respond to and criticize his political opponents since he’s the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. The judge was unmoved.
March 27, 2024: Trump posted false information about Merchan’s daughter to his social media account, including that she posted a fake photo of him in jail and that she represents the Biden administration and other Democrats.
March 28, 2024: The district attorney’s office asked for clarification about whether the gag order covers the families of the judge and Bragg. Trump argued that the gag order should not apply to Merchan’s family since his daughter works for Democrats. In reality, she is the head of a digital marketing agency that works with Democrats and nonprofits.
April 1, 2024: The district attorney’s office asked Merchan to expand the gag order to include his family, if it did not already do so. Trump posted several more times about Merchan’s daughter, leading the district attorney’s office to file another brief detailing the “dangerous, violent, and reprehensible rhetoric.”
April 1, 2024: Merchan expands the gag order to include his family and Bragg’s family. The decision also warned Trump that “any violation of the order will result in sanctions.”
April 15, 2024: The district attorney’s office filed a motion to find Trump in contempt for breaking the gag order in three social media posts, seeking $1,000 for each of the three violations. They also asked that the posts be removed and that Merchan warn Trump that future violations could lead to jail time.
April 18, 2024: The district attorney’s office added to the motion to find Trump in contempt seven additional instances in which he violated the gag order.
April 18, 2024: Merchan scheduled a hearing to assess the gag order violations, set for five days later.
The Gag Order Violations:
April 10, 2024:
April 10, 2024: Trump shared on social media a photo of a 2018 statement signed by Stormy Daniels, who later disavowed it, in which she denied having an affair with Trump – not because she was paid hush money, the testament reads, but because “it never happened.” Trump added to the top of the post: “LOOK WHAT WAS JUST FOUND! WILL THE FAKE NEWS REPORT IT?”
April 13, 2024: Trump posted on social media about Mark Pomerantz, one of the two leading prosecutors investigating Trump who abruptly resigned after Bragg initially halted the investigation in 2022. The post read: “Has Mark POMERANTZ been prosecuted for his terrible acts in and out of the D.A.’s Office. Has disgraced attorney and felon Michael Cohen been prosecuted for LYING? Only TRUMP people get prosecuted by this Judge and these thugs! A dark day for our Country. MAGA2024!!!”
April 15, 2024: Trump shared on social media a story published in the New York Post titled, “A serial perjurer will try to prove an old misdemeanor against Trump in an embarrassment for the New York legal system.” The report focused on Cohen.
April 15, 2024: Trump shared on social media the New York Post report again.
April 15, 2024: Trump shared a link to the New York Post report on his campaign website.
April 16, 2024: Trump shared on social media the New York Post report again.
April 16, 2024: Trump shared a link to the New York Post report on his campaign website again.
April 16, 2024: Trump shared on social media an op-ed published in the National Review titled, “No, Cohen’s Guilty Plea Does Not Prove Trump Committed Campaign-Finance Crimes.”
April 17, 2024: Trump posted on social media a quote from a Fox News commentator, Jesse Watters: “They are catching undercover Liberal Activists lying to the Judge in order to get on the Trump Jury.”
April 25, 2024: At the gag order hearing, Merchan appeared poised to rule that the Trump repeatedly violated his gag order, going so far as to tell his attorney, “You’re losing all credibility with this court.” But it was less clear how he would choose a punishment that preserved judicial integrity and avoided political theater.
April 25, 2024: The district attorney’s office submitted four additional gag order violations, including statements about Cohen, the jury and a witness. Merchan scheduled a separate hearing for May 2 to consider the new violations.
The Additional Gag Order Violations:
April 22, 2024: Trump told reporters at the courthouse: “When are they going to look at all the lies Cohen did in the last trial. … He got caught lying, pure lying.”
April 22, 2024: Trump said in an interview with Real America’s Voice: “That jury was picked so fast – 95% Democrats. … You think of it as a purely Democrat area. It’s a very unfair situation.”
April 23, 2024: Trump said in an interview with Action News: “Michael Cohen is a convicted liar, and he’s got no credibility whatsoever. He was a lawyer and you rely on your lawyers. But Michael Cohen was a convicted liar. He was a lawyer for many people, not just me. Then he got in trouble because of things outside of what he did for me.”
April 25, 2024: Trump told reports at the courthouse, regarding former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, who was set to testify: “David’s been very nice, a nice guy.”
Contempt Law in New York:
Criminal intent under the judiciary code involves instances of disorderly conduct before the court, publication of a “grossly inaccurate report” of a proceeding, or a “willful disobedience” to a mandate, such as a gag order. The penalties associated with this type of contempt include a fine up to $1,000 and/or 30 days in jail per incident.
To prove contempt, the district attorney’s office must establish five elements beyond a reasonable doubt:
- There was a lawful court order in effect
- The court order expressed a clear and unequivocal mandate
- Trump knew the terms of the order
- Trump violated the order
- Trump knowingly violated the order
