NEW YORK: The judge in Donald Trump’s criminal trial fined him $1,000 and held him in contempt of court for a 10th time for violating a gag order, while warning any further violations could land the former president in jail.
Justice Juan Merchan said the nine $1,000 fines he had imposed so far did not seem to be deterring the wealthy business mogul from violating the order, which bars him from making public comments about jurors, witnesses and families of the judge and prosecutors if the statements are meant to interfere with the case.
Merchan said he considered jail time “truly the last resort” for many reasons, including the disruption to the trial, political implications of jailing a leading presidential candidate ahead of an election and the extraordinary security challenges of incarcerating an ex-president with a lifetime Secret Service detail.
But he said Trump’s “continued, willful” violations of the gag order amounted to a “direct attack on the rule of law.”
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