The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial on Thursday signaled he might impose more fines on the former U.S. president for violating a gag order that prohibits him from talking about witnesses and jurors.
Justice Juan Merchan challenged a defense assertion that Trump did not violate the gag order when he said the Manhattan jury in the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president was picked from a heavily Democratic area. “I’m making an argument that he didn’t,” Trump lawyer Todd Blanche told the judge.
“Well I’m not agreeing with that argument,” Merchan responded without saying whether or when he would impose a fine.
Prosecutors are asking Merchan to fine Trump $4,000 for violating the gag order four times last week. In one instance, the Republican Trump said in a TV interview that “that jury was picked so fast - 95% Democrats. The area’s mostly all Democrat.”
This is utter nonsense. Judges can enforce their courts. Period.
Imagine if you went in for a road ticket, you say something arrogant to the judge, and the judges tosses you in jail. Is that reasonable? Or would a warning or fine be the first step? If you go all the way right away, you’re gonna get called biased, you’re gonna get everyone in the political side riled up, you put the jury, prosecutors, etc in danger. I know you wish they could just ignore all that but that can’t. This is a special circumstance and a special defendant, of course there’s a double standard.
Isn’t it the 9th gag order on Trump? He’d have been jailed already