A New York judge clamped down on former President Donald Trump Tuesday, fining him $9,000 and threatening him with jail time for violations of the gag order he imposed in the presumptive Republican nominee’s hush-money trial.
State Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan levied a $1,000 penalty for each of nine violations and will hold a hearing on four more alleged violations on Thursday, injecting drama and tension into the trial as it entered its second week.
Prosecutors had complained about Mr. Trump’s comments on the nature of the jury pool and witnesses Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels, saying his observations violated the order designed to protect witnesses, jurors and court staff connected with the country’s first criminal trial of a former president.
Judge Merchan, bemoaning that $9,000 doesn’t mean much to wealthy defendants, warned Mr. Trump he could go to the slammer if he did not follow the gag order.
“Defendant is hereby warned that the Court will not tolerate continued willful violations of its lawful orders and that if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, it will impose an incarceratory punishment,” the judge said.
The order appeared to have an immediate impact, with Mr. Trump removing some of the offending posts from his Truth Social account during a lunch break. At the same time, Mr. Trump fundraised off the decision.
SEE ALSO: Lawyer Keith Davidson testifies on Karen McDougal, Stormy Daniels deals in 2016
“A Democrat judge JUST HELD ME IN CONTEMPT OF COURT!” his campaign said in an email before the trial’s lunch break. “THEY WANT TO SILENCE ME! They think they can BLEED ME DRY and SHUT ME UP, but I’ll NEVER stop fighting for YOU.”
Mr. Trump plans to hold campaign rallies in Wisconsin and Michigan at midweek because the trial is not being held on Wednesdays.
Prosecutors say Mr. Trump and his then-lawyer, Mr. Cohen, concealed 2016 hush payments to adult film actress Ms. Daniels through a series of checks and business entries that misled banks and showed intent to commit election and tax crimes. Mr. Trump denies having a sexual encounter with Ms. Daniels in 2006, as she claims.
Mr. Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records. He is stuck in the Manhattan courtroom four days per week while he pursues the White House.
The former president says the gag order is especially pernicious because he is being muzzled ahead of a rematch with President Biden. He says the gag order prevents him from hitting back at his critics and is part of a Democratic plot to ruin his campaign.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, say it is important to protect witnesses and jurors participating in a highly charged trial involving a world-famous defendant with a penchant for personal insults.
Given that backdrop, Judge Merchan is trying to strike a balance. He wants to control the trial while not being reversed on appeal, so he landed on a $9,000 fine and the threat of jail “in the hope of controlling Trump’s future behavior,” said Gregory Germain, a professor at Syracuse University College of Law.
Yet the judge is relying on an unusual New York law that allows judges to impose fines and jail time for “criminal contempt” that wasn’t committed in front of the court.
If the judge sent Mr. Trump to jail, his lawyers could argue Mr. Trump is being punished without enjoying the full protections that accused persons typically enjoy. The debate could reach the Supreme Court.
“At this point, we’re talking about relatively small monetary penalties, so Judge Merchan will probably get away with the sanctions order without creating a constitutional crisis,” Mr. Germain said. “However, were he to go further and sentence Trump to jail for speaking about witnesses who are on social media talking about him, or for criticizing the judge, I think Judge Merchan would have a serious problem.”
Judge Merchan has scheduled a Thursday hearing on more alleged violations of the gag order, so prosecutors will likely be watching Mr. Trump’s comments for any mention of witnesses or jurors.
“Given that Trump is the kind of guy who will continue to skirt the line with his media posts,” Mr. Germain said, “I suspect we have not heard the last of this.”
As if to soften the blow, Judge Merchan said Tuesday he will not hold the trial on May 17 so Mr. Trump can attend his son Barron’s high school graduation.
Mr. Trump’s second-oldest son, Eric Trump, attended court on Tuesday, marking the first time a family member showed up. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican and key Trump ally, also attended.
Tuesday’s proceedings featured Keith Davidson, a lawyer known for representing people trying to sell celebrity sex tapes or other embarrassing information.
Mr. Davidson described how he played various media outlets against each other to sell a story from Playboy model Karen McDougal, who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump but didn’t want the tale to become public. Earlier testimony suggested she was leveraging her story for career opportunities.
The National Enquirer was initially cool to the story because Ms. McDougal “lacked documentary evidence of the interaction,” according to Mr. Davidson. But editor-in-chief Dylan Howard reached out again a month later to resume discussions, he said.
Mr. Davidson said he was playing the Enquirer and ABC News against each other to get the best deal for Ms. McDougal. The former Playboy model didn’t want to tell her story publicly, which would have been required if she had gone to ABC, he said.
He said he was aware of two reasons why American Media Inc., the National Enquirer’s parent company, would buy a story it didn’t intend to run.
“One explanation I was given is they were trying to build Karen into a brand and didn’t want to diminish her reputation,” he said. “And the second was an unspoken understanding that there was an affiliation between David Pecker and Donald Trump and that AMI wouldn’t run this story, any story related to Karen, because it would hurt Donald Trump.”
Mr. Davidson later testified how Ms. Daniels shopped her story to the National Enquirer but AMI backed out of negotiations and told them to deal with Mr. Cohen. He said in negotiating with Mr. Cohen, he raised the price from $120,000 to $130,000 — building in his fee for his work on the deal.
The jury also heard from Gary Farro, a banker who worked with Mr. Cohen in 2016.
Within a day after opening the Essential Consultants LLC account on Oct. 26, 2016, and funding it with about $130,000 from his own home equity loan, Mr. Cohen wired $130,000 to Mr. Davidson, documents showed.
The 2016 presidential election was on Nov. 8.
Mr. Farro said Mr. Cohen indicated the transaction was related to real estate — not a political candidate, an adult film performer or buying up a potential media story.
On cross-examination, defense attorneys tried to characterize Mr. Cohen as a difficult person. Mr. Trump’s lawyers plan to attack Mr. Cohen as a rogue actor with no credibility.
• This article is based in part on wire-service reports.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.