Judge Juan Merchan found Donald Trump in contempt on Tuesday for nine gag order violations in his New York criminal case. The state judge imposed the maximum fine of $1,000 per violation and warned Trump of possible incarceration for further defiance.
While imposing the punishment, such as it was, even Merchan acknowledged its relative weakness against this wealthy defendant. But it was nonetheless a historic ruling against the former president and presumptive GOP presidential nominee.
Yet, that epic backdrop sets up for a possibly anticlimactic outcome from the latest gag order hearing, set for Thursday morning over additional alleged violations. The reason why is that, even if Merchan were to find more violations, that might only yield more low-level fines. The alleged violations at issue occurred before Merchan issued his ruling Tuesday.
So if the judge’s jail warning in that ruling was only meant to be applied for violations starting after that, then one might think that fines are the most that can come out of Thursday’s hearing. The law gives judges the option of fines of up to $1,000 or a maximum of 30 days in jail (or both) for criminal contempt violations.
Of course, Trump was clearly on notice before Tuesday that jail was a possibility for violating the court order. But even so, Merchan might not consider the option a practical one heading into Thursday. 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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