The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York held him in contempt of court on Tuesday for violating a gag order that limits what he can say about those involved in the case.
Judge Juan Merchan said Trump violated the order nine times in recent weeks. He fined Trump $9,000, or $1,000 for each violation.
Merchan issued the original gag order in March, before the trial got underway. It barred Trump from commenting on likely witnesses, potential jurors, court staff, lawyers for the prosecution and others connected to the case. The judge later expanded that order to cover his own family members after Trump attacked his daughter over her consulting work with Democratic candidates and progressive causes.
The gag order does not prevent Trump from criticizing Merchan or Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney.
Prosecutors from Bragg’s office filed a motion urging the judge to find Trump in contempt over 10 posts targeting Michael Cohen, Stormy Daniels and others. They laid out four other instances in which they said Trump violated the order when court convened last Thursday. Those four alleged violations are the subject of a hearing set to be held this week.
At a hearing over the posts earlier last week, Chris Conroy, an attorney on Bragg’s team, said they “willfully and flagrantly” violated the order.
“No one is off limits to the defendant. He can attack and seek to intimidate anyone he wants to in service to himself,” prosecutor Chris Conroy said. He asked that the judge impose a $1,000 fine for each post and order Trump to take them down.
Todd Blanche, an attorney for Trump, argued that his client was responding to political attacks in his posts, and did not believe he was violating the order when reposting or quoting others. Merchan repeatedly asked him to name the precise attacks Trump was responding to, which Blanche could not do.
“Mr. Blanche, you’re losing all credibility. I have to tell you that right now. You’re losing all credibility with the court,” Merchan said at one point.
Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records related to reimbursements for a $130,000 “hush money” payment to Stormy Daniels, an adult film star who said she had a sexual encounter with Trump, which Trump denies. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges in the case, and repeatedly protested the gag order as “unconstitutional.”
