Donald Trump Held In Contempt And Fined $9,000 For Violations Of Judge’s Gag Order

Ted Johnson
·3 min read
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UPDATE: Donald Trump deleted a series of Truth Social posts that were the subject of a judge’s contempt order today.

Trump had until 2:15 p.m. to remove the posts.

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Trump also slammed the judge for the order. In a new Truth Social post, written during a break in the trial, he said, “This Judge has taken away my Constitutional Right to FREE SPEECH. I am the only Presidential Candidate in History to be GAGGED.”

PREVIOUSLY: Former President Donald Trump was found in contempt of court and fined $9,000 today for violating a judge’s partial gag order.

Trump also was ordered to remove seven posts from his Truth Social account and two posts from a campaign website by 2:15 p.m. today.

The judge, Juan Merchan, also warned Trump that he could face “incarceratory punishment” for further violations.

Read Merchan’s ruling.

The gag order restricts Trump from commenting on potential witnesses, many of the prosecutors, courtroom staff and the judge’s family members. Trump also is prohibited from commenting on prospective jurors.

Prosecutors sought fines against Trump as he continued to post about his former attorney Michael Cohen, as well as Stormy Daniels, both of whom are expected to testify in the trial. The former president is charged with falsification of business records stemming from hush money payments made to Daniels. Trump has plead not guilty.

Prosecutors had sought the contempt order, pointing to 10 of Trump’s social media posts. Merchan ruled that Trump was in criminal contempt for all but one of those posts.

The judge also rejected Trump attorneys’ arguments that his reposts of others did not violate the order.

Merchan wrote that by reporting, Trump endorsed the posts with one purpose in mind – to maximize viewership and to communicate his stamp of approval. Indeed, Defendant has boasted about the reach of his Truth Social platform when describing its value – ‘More importandy, [Truth Social] is the primry why I get the word out and, for better or worse, people want to hear what I have to say, perhaps, according to experts, more than anyone in the world … on Truth I have 7,00,000 [sic] followers …”

Merchan wrote that “it is counterintuitive, and indeed absurd, to read the [gag order] to not proscribe statements that Defendant intentionally selected and published to maximize exposure.”

The judge also rejected another post from Trump that quoted Fox News host Jesse Watters that called into question the jury selection process. Merchan, however, noted that Trump altered Watters’ statement, placed it in quotes and still attributed it to him.

“This constitutes a clear violation of the [gag order] and requires no further analysis,” the judge wrote.

The judge noted that the gag order does allow Trump to respond to political attacks, but “merely characterizing every one of Defendant’s postings as a response to a ‘political attack’ does not make them so.”

He wrote, “It is of utmost importance to this Court that the [gag order] not be used as a sword instead of a shield by potential witnesses. Consideration of such usage will be weighed by this Court when ruling on the willfulness of any future claims of alleged violations of the Expanded Order as well as when determining appropriate punishment, if any.”

Nevertheless, the judge also warned Trump that he “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.”

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