The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial on Thursday signaled he might impose more fines on the former U.S. president for violating a gag order that prohibits him from talking about witnesses and jurors.
Justice Juan Merchan challenged a defense assertion that Trump did not violate the gag order when he said the Manhattan jury in the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president was picked from a heavily Democratic area. “I’m making an argument that he didn’t,” Trump lawyer Todd Blanche told the judge.
“Well I’m not agreeing with that argument,” Merchan responded without saying whether or when he would impose a fine.
Prosecutors are asking Merchan to fine Trump $4,000 for violating the gag order four times last week. In one instance, the Republican Trump said in a TV interview that “that jury was picked so fast - 95% Democrats. The area’s mostly all Democrat.”
It’s not worth the risk of giving the defense cause for mistrial by jumping to jail time too quickly. This has to be as moderate as possible, and Merchan is doing exactly that.
He’s already been fined for 9 counts of contempt of court, would prison time after that really count as “going too quickly” ?
Yes, it is. It’s standard procedure for the judge to follow the recommendations of the prosecution. Merchan has now set the expectation that further infractions could lead to a jail sentence.