Judge Juan Merchan ruled that Donald Trump has violated a gag order in his criminal case yet again — for the 10th time. The judge said he’s imposing the maximum $1,000 fine on the defendant but noted that such penalties aren’t deterring Trump, so jail may be next for the former president and presumptive GOP presidential nominee’s next violation.
Merchan previously found Trump in contempt on nine violations in an April 30 ruling. This latest decision on Monday, as trial testimony continues, stems from separate alleged violations regarding statements about key witnesses Michael Cohen and David Pecker, as well as about the jury. Merchan found Trump in contempt for one of the alleged violations, regarding the jury statement.
The violation came from an April 22 interview in which Trump said that the jury “was picked so fast — 95% Democrats. The area’s mostly all Democrat. You think of it as a — just a purely Democrat area. It’s a very unfair situation, that I can tell you.” While the judge disagreed with the prosecution on the Cohen and Pecker statements, he said Trump’s jury statement called into question the integrity and legitimacy of the proceedings and also raised the specter of fear for the safety of the jurors and their loved ones.
Merchan noted in his previous ruling that the $1,000 fine per violation — the maximum fine allowed by law — was relatively low. But he warned in that ruling that jail may be next for the former president. At the May 2 hearing, the prosecution said it wasn’t seeking jail yet so as not to disrupt the proceedings.
Given that the prosecution wasn’t seeking jail and the violation at issue came before Merchan’s jail-warning ruling on April 30, Merchan only imposed the fine this time as well. I predicted this anticlimactic outcome for the timing reason that Merchan noted. But the result of this latest ruling more firmly sets up the question of what Merchan will do if Trump violates the gag order once again. Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for weekly updates on the top legal stories, including news from the Supreme Court, the Donald Trump cases and more.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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