Donald Trump has been ordered to pay a $9,000 fine for repeated violations of court orders prohibiting him from insulting jurors or witnesses in his hush money trial in New York.
Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Juan Marchand fined Trump at the start of the trial Tuesday morning for multiple violations of Marchand’s previously issued gag order.
A public hearing on the gag order violation issue will be held on Thursday morning to determine whether the real estate mogul should face further fines.
Before imposing the fine, Marchan told Trump he could attend his son Barron’s graduation on May 17.
The former president had been accused of violating the order 11 times by prosecutors for speaking about court officials.
His lawyers pushed back, arguing that Trump’s comments were in support of political attacks against him.
Marchand ruled that the 77-year-old former president cannot be held in contempt of jurors or witnesses in criminal cases or go after the families of court officials, including his own relatives and relatives of District Attorney Alvin Bragg. was lowered.
Trump is still allowed to rip Bragg and Merchan all he wants.
President Trump has repeatedly criticized potential trial witnesses Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels in public comments and social media posts in recent days.
Mr. Cohen also made comments about Mr. Trump in “X,” but he is not subject to a court gag order and will not be disciplined.
President Trump also accused Fox News of “covertly catching liberal activists who lied to judges to get juries” in what prosecutors called his most “disturbing posts.” I reposted the words of the moderator.
The court also ordered President Trump to remove eight posts from Truth Social and two from his campaign website that it found targeted jurors, Cohen and Daniels. I ordered.
Although jurors are supposed to remain anonymous, several potential panelists said they feared their identities would be revealed during jury selection.
The 12 jurors and six alternates come from a variety of backgrounds and hold different jobs, but all took an oath not to be affiliated with any political organization for or against Trump.
Technically, a court can jail a defendant for up to 30 days for violating a gag order, but prosecutors did not seek to jail Trump.
However, they asked the judge to warn them that any future breaches of the gag order could result in a prison sentence.
President Trump called the gag order “unfair” and said the court was “taking away my constitutional right to speak.”
He has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
The charges include concealing payments to Daniels, which prosecutors allege were part of an illegal conspiracy with the National Enquirer tabloid to hide harmful articles from voters before the 2016 presidential election. ing.
with post wire
