The New York judge presiding over former US president Donald Trump’s historic criminal trial on Monday threatened Trump with jail time if he committed another breach of his gag order.
Trump, 77, is charged with falsifying business records to reimburse his lawyer, Michael Cohen, for a US$130,000 payment made to a porn star just days ahead of his 2016 presidential election campaign against Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, was threatening at the time to go public with her story about a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump, a salacious revelation that could have been damaging to his White House bid.
Photo: AFP
Judge Juan Merchan on Monday held Trump in contempt of court and fined him US$1,000 for a breach of the gag order prohibiting him from publicly attacking witnesses, jurors or court staff and their relatives.
Trump was also fined a total of US$9,000 last week, but Merchan said these penalties were not serving as a “deterrent” and he would have to consider jail time for further breaches.
“As much as I do not want to impose a jail sanction... I want you to understand I will,” Merchan told Trump, who sat silently at the defense table.
“At the end of the day I have a job to do and part of that job is to maintain the dignity of the justice system,” the judge said, calling Trump’s defiance a “direct attack on the rule of law.”
Merchan’s ruling came at the start of the third week of testimony in the high-stakes trial of the Republican White House candidate, the first former US president to face criminal charges.
Speaking to reporters after the day’s proceedings, Trump blasted the case as “election interference” by Democrats to keep him off the campaign trail.
“I should be out campaigning,” he said.
Before the day wrapped up, prosecutors said they expect at least two more weeks of witness testimony, drawing an angry reaction from Trump.
“I thought they were going to be finished today and they want two to three more weeks,” he told reporters.
He also criticized the gag order.
“Our constitution is much more important than jail, it’s not even close,” he said. “I’ll do that sacrifice any day.”
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