News @lemmy.world MicroWave @lemmy.world 10mo ago

Judge holds Trump in contempt for violating gag order in hush money trial

www.nbcnews.com Judge holds Trump in contempt for violating gag order in hush money trial

Judge Juan Merchan warned Trump that if he continues to violate the judge's orders, he could impose “an incarceratory punishment.”

Prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office accused Trump of violating the gag order numerous times since it went into effect.

The judge presiding over Donald Trump’s hush money case on Tuesday held the former president in criminal contempt over a series of posts on Truth Social that he said violated a gag order barring any attacks on jurors and witnesses.

Judge Juan Merchan ruled Trump in contempt for nine violations of his gag order, with a fine of $1,000 for each instance. The order prohibits the former president from "making or directing others to make public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses concerning their potential participation in the investigation or in this criminal proceeding," and "public statements about any prospective juror or any juror."

Merchan had indicated on April 23 that he was not impressed by the arguments from the defense, telling one of Trump's attorneys that he was “losing all credibility” when he suggested that Trump was exercising caution to comply with the gag order.

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103 comments

Put. Him. In. A. Holding. Cell.
- Fill. The. Holding. Cell. With. Wasps.
  
  50,000 to 60,000.
  
  Then. Set. It. All. On. Fire.
  
  Honestly?
  
  The wasps deserve better.
  
  Wasps
  
  make it "TVs tuned to MSNBC"
- In a hole preferably
- Make him pick up litter along the highway.
So he's going to jail right? Held in jail until his next trial date, like what normally happens to people held in contempt?
- Next time, we totally mean it this time!
  
  Stop, or I'll say stop again!
This is a joke right?
- The maximum fine in NY for this is $1,000 per infraction. If it continues, the judge could sentence jail time but the fine would remain the same.
  
  So it's basically designed for rich people to be to ignore?
  
  And the judge acknowledged that point in his statement. Pointed out that other types of violations allow the guilty party's wealth to be taken into account, but this charge doesn't. Also pointed out that ignoring this sentence and doing future violations are mush more likely to lead to jail time.
  
  .
  
  Despite Trump's whining about everything being unfair to him, and the public saying this is a slap on the wrist, the judge is taking the legally appropriate and legally required steps.
- Yes and no.
  
  The amount is insignificant in the monetary sense, but shows the court can actually enforce a gag order. Hopefully further violations result in far more significant contempt punishments such as throwing his ass in jail, but it is a start.
  
  It’s not enforcement if he can pay it with pocket change, it’s just a slight annoyance. Enforcement would be taking his means of breaking the gag order away (his access to social media).
FOR REALS this time, if you do it AGAIN, ~~there will be consequences~~ we'll tell you to stop again!
- I know this is a popular thing to be angry about, but this time there was an actual fine. The consequences are being ratcheted up. The judge is just taking as much care as possible to make sure that all the "t"s are crossed and "i"s dotted along the way, otherwise he risks the whole trial being thrown out in the end. Look at some of the other high-profile "this rich guy's guilty as sin but got off anyway" cases, they often boil down to some screw-up that doesn't disprove the overall case but still invalidates the trial. Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby pop to mind.
  
  A $9,000 fine is hardly a consequence for the rich.
  
  . The judge is just taking as much care as possible to make sure that all the "t"s are crossed and "i"s dotted along the way
  
  Ive heard this for every single trial trump has faced. This strategy isnt doing shit but making sure trump is comfortable before facing no consequences yet again.
$1000 fine per incident? Can Trump wipe his diapers with a thousand dollar bill before giving it to the court? When will this asshat have real accountability?
- Statutory maximum, he can't legally start with worse. He threatened jail for future contempt. And I hope he holds that promise!
  
  He won't.
$9,000? Fucking seriously?
- Unfortunately, that is probably the statute. It sucks that we don't scale up fines based on wealth.
  
  In Sweden (I think), speeding tickets are based on how much money you have. A person making $50k a year will pay a lower speeding ticket compared to a billionaire going the same speed.
  
  As they say if the punishment is a fine it's aimed at the poor.
  
  It's the maximum penalty, and the judge acknowledged that he had no control over it and that he wished it scaled with the contemnor's ability to pay.
  
  Finland has that rule, not Sweden
- @Bassman1805 @MicroWave New York law $1K per instance. I would guess this is a warning shot and if #djt keeps violating the gag order, we'll see #incarceration. #Merchan is being very careful and not giving any wiggle room for an appeal.
...for small change. This is not going to stop anything. It just gave his methods a (cheap) price tag.
- It has to be reasonable and in line with practice. Trump is both like and unlike everyone else that's gone through that courtroom. You have to treat him with kid gloves, let him keep pulling on the rope, then hang him with FAFO consequences fully justified and above reproach.
From what I have read, conditions of his release from the other trials include not committing ANY crime. Criminal contempt triggers this and Judge Chutkin is the most likely to jail him. Now...odds on that ACTUALLY happening...
- That's an interesting thought. It will never happen, of course, but if she decides he violated the terms of his release she could remand him to jail until trial. If that happens, then all of the work Trump has done to delay his other trials until after the election would end up costing him big time.
- 0.000000000% unfortunately
  
  There's a 1 somewhere at the end of a nearly infinite list of zeroes.
  
  I think you dropped a 0.
I'm sure he's shaking in his boots.

Mostly because he's a fat worthless fuckstain, not because he's scared of a 9,000 dollar fine.
- I wonder if he's gonna pull some sort of lame stunt, like pay it in pennies, or in 23 pairs of Trump Sneakers
- I'm sure he's shaking in his boots.
  
  Seething with anger, more likely.
Not hush money. Election interference.
What a coincidence! I find him contemptible, too
Quick, everyone purchase the Ultimate Beach Set to help the god emperor out. /s
- Eighty five American dollars for that? To what amounts to probably $3 in wholesale crap from a container drop?
1K??? AHAHAHAHAHAAAHAHHHAAHAAAA

OMG this is hilarious. I officially now have more contempt for this judge than I do for Trump. And that's really saying something.
- That's the maximum non-custodial sentence
  
  So in other words, the fine needs to be a percentage of wealth/income, not a flat rate.
  
  So? Lock him up.
- It's the maximum penalty, and the judge acknowledged that he had no control over it and that he wished it scaled with the contemnor's ability to pay.
- One way to look at it. Another is that Trump is not being treated any different than someone else when it comes to the fine. If he keeps doing it and the judge locks him up, everyone knows the judge was fair.
  
  Go do the same shit and see what happens to you.
So $9K?

For the layman, that’s a lot, but for Trump?
- It’s the legal maximum fine for this, and there are still three other charges that will be discussed this week. It’s very much possible that Trump may see the inside of a jail cell, but that remains to be seen.
  
  And even though it seems like a tiny slap on Trump's tiny wrist, it's still an escalation. So next time Trump flagrantly violates gag orders the judge can escalate more. If there's an appeal it'll be important to be able to show the judge didn't jump straight to the harshest penalties.
- Let's be real, that's probably a lot for Trump right now, too. The man's broke.
  
  Lol he's not paying. Republicans gave him unfettered access to their election campaign funds
  
  Drain em Donny. Keep going.
  
  His stake in his "media" company is (nonsensically) still worth billions of dollars right now. He probably won't be able to cash all of that out if he wanted to, but he is definitely not broke.
- I’m sure Trump doesn’t pay anyways. He’ll use the money donated to him by Cleatus the slack jawed yokel.
Bitty balls are better than no balls i guess

103 comments