Trump in contempt: hush-money judge orders Trump pay $9,000 for nine gag order violations and warns of jail for future violations
Manhattan hush-money judge Juan Merchan fined Trump $9,000 for violating his gag order by attacking witnesses Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen.
Pool/Curtis Means
- Trump was found in contempt Thursday for nine violations of his hush-money gag order.
- Trump was fined $9,000, and warned he could be jailed over future violations.
- The judge's contempt order came in response to Trump's online attacks on witnesses and jurors.
Donald Trump is in contempt of court and must pay a $9,000 fine for violating his gag order nine times, the judge presiding over the Manhattan hush-money trial ruled on Thursday.
The fine represents the $1,000 maximum allowed by New York state law, state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan said in a written decision.
Given that low maximum — and that Trump "can easily afford such a fine" — future violations could result in jail, the judge warned. New York law allows for a maximum of 30 days of incarceration per violation.
"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," Merchan wrote in his contempt order.
Trump has until May 3 to pay the fine. He was also ordered to take down the offending nine posts.
Read Trump's contempt order here.
Trump violated his gag by questioning the impartiality of his jury and by attacking trial witnesses Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels as liars and "sleaze bags" on Truth Social and on his campaign website, the judge found.
Prosecutors failed to establish that what they saw as a tenth violation — involving a Truth Social posts from April 10 — violated the gag, the judge found.
Trump still faces a potential additional contempt finding — along with more fines — for four alleged violations from last week. A hearing on those four most recent alleged violations has been scheduled for Thursday.
In those violations, Trump again disparaged jurors, Cohen, and another key prosecution witness — former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker — in on-camera statements from Monday, Tuesday and Thursday of last week.
Prosecutors have alleged a total of 14 gag violations, all from April.
Merchan found Trump in contempt outside the jury's hearing on Tuesday, before the start of direct testimony by the trial's third witness, Gary Farro, a former banker for Cohen.
The judge did not reprimand or warn Trump in briefly announcing his contempt finding from the bench, saying merely, "the court finds the people have met their burden" of proving contempt.
But in writing, the warning of jail was clear.
"While $1,000 may suffice in most instances to protect the judicial system, to compel respect for its mandates and to punish the offender for disobeying a court order, it unfortunately will not achieve the desired result in those instances where the contemnor can easily afford the fine," Merchan wrote.
"In those circumstances, it would be preferable if the court could impose a fine more commensurate with the wealth of the contemnor," he wrote.
"In some cases that might be a $2,500 fine, in other cases it might be a fine of $150,000," he wrote.
"Because this court is not cloaked with such discretion, it must therefore consider whether in some instances, jail may be a necessary punishment."
Prosecutor Christopher Conroy had called Trump's a threat to the trial, now in its second week.
Other witnesses, beyond Cohen and Daniels, see these posts and are also intimidated, the prosecutor said last week, calling it "sort of the undertow effect."
"The defendant is having his day in court," Conroy had argued. "Unfortunately," the prosecutor added, "he is doing everything he can to undermine this process."
Defense lawyer Todd Blanche had countered in court last Tuesday that Trump had been "trying to comply" with the gag order.
The order, issued April 1, bars Trump from making statements about jurors, witnesses, and certain trial staff and their family members, if those statements could influence the trial.
"President Trump is being very careful," Blanche had added in arguments Tuesday.
It was at this point that Merchan lashed into Blanche.
"You're losing all credibility with the court," Merchan told the lawyer, his voice frustrated.
This is a breaking story; please check back for developments.