Former President Donald Trump got out of Tuesday’s contempt hearing with just a $9,000 fine for what Judge Juan Merchan ruled were violations of his gag order, but the Republican criminal defendant was also warned that he could spend time behind bars if he doesn’t start behaving.
Trump, on trial over allegations he falsified business records to cover up pre-election hush payments, has repeatedly defied the gag order in his Manhattan case, posting Truth Social attacks on witnesses including Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels. At a hearing earlier this month, his lawyer, Todd Blanche, tried to argue that such attacks were merely political speech, a claim that prompted the judge to tell him he was “losing all credibility” with the court.
At Tuesday morning’s hearing, Judge Merchan found that Trump had violated his gag order no fewer than nine times, fining him $1,000 for each violation, the maximum allowed under law, NBC News reported. But the judge also said he’s keeping open the possibility of a harsher punishment down the line, aware that monetary damages might not mean a whole lot to a wealth defendant.
According to Merchan, “if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances,” Trump could be slapped with “an incarceratory punishment.”
However, while reiterating the court’s prohibition on attacking witnesses and jurors, generally, CNN legal analyst Karen Friedman Agnifilo said the judge did say Trump is allowed to defend himself if he is attacked first. “So he’s almost sending a message in here as well, saying, ‘Look, if it turns out that other people are using this gag order as a way to attack you, you can attack back,'” she commented.