


A judge fined former President Donald Trump an additional $1,000 on Monday for violating the gag order in his New York hush money trial, prompting the judge to warn future violations may result in incarceration.
Trump was already fined $9,000 for nine separate violations raised by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, and the former president has vowed to appeal Judge Juan Merchan’s findings — especially surrounding breaches that were the result of Trump reposting other people’s online posts. Trump, the first former president to be a defendant in a criminal trial, was previously warned that future violations could result in jail time.
In the new contempt finding against Trump, Merchan again warned Trump that he is “hereby put on notice that if appropriate and warranted, future violations of its lawful orders will be punishable by incarceration,” according to the order.
A new witness is slated to take the stand in the criminal hush money trial on Monday. Trump’s former aide Hope Hicks testified Friday about the fallout from the Access Hollywood tape released during his 2016 campaign and the Trump White House’s response to new stories about hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal that had been made during the campaign.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Prosecutors in the Democratic district attorney’s office said Trump took part in an illegal conspiracy to undermine the 2016 election and hatched an unlawful plan to suppress negative information, which included a $130,000 hush money payment handled by his former attorney, Michael Cohen. Defense attorneys have argued that Trump was not directly involved in structuring the payments and have noted that suppressing negative information is not illegal.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to the 34 counts of falsifying business records.