Trump Held in Contempt for Repeatedly Violating Gag Order

The Judge in Donald Trump’s hush money trial has found the former president in contempt of court for repeatedly violating a gag order, and fining him $9,000 — $1,000 for nine separate violations.

Judge Juan Merchan determined on Tuesday that Trump had breached a court order barring him from publicly commenting on court staff, prosecutors, prospective jurors, or their families in 9 out of 10 instances alleged by Manhattan prosecutors. Merchan is expected to hear arguments regarding four more additional violations in a hearing on Thursday.

Merchan also warned Trump 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,” echoing past warnings to the former president that he will not hesitate to revoke his bail if he’s unable to comply with court rules.

Trump refused to comment on the fines and ruling several times on Tuesday when asked by reporters. Instead, he would pump his fist before entering or leaving court.

Since the start of his trial, Trump has been accused of violating a limited gag order imposed by Merchan in March after the former president’s repeated attacks against individuals involved in the case, as well as the judge’s family. Rolling Stone reported earlier this month that Trump hasn’t been taking the gag order seriously, believing he will not face serious repercussions for violating it.

The former president has taken direct aim at two key witnesses in the case, his former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress who received the hush money payment at the center of the case.

In April, Trump posted an image of a statement signed by Daniels in 2018 which purportedly denied her alleged affair with the former president. Trump falsely accused the media of burying the statement, which Daniels later said she had signed believing there would be legal repercussions if she didn’t.

In several posts and public statements, Trump attacked Cohen over his past convictions. In 2018, Cohen was sentenced to 36 months in prison after pleading guilty to having committed campaign finance violations through his payment to Daniels. That same year, he admitted to perjuring himself before the Senate Intelligence Committee and House Intelligence Committee and was sentenced to two months in prison.

The former president has publicly referred to Cohen — who is expected to testify in his trial — as a “serial perjurer,” a “convicted liar,” and a “disgraced attorney and felon.” In televised statements given to reporters outside of the courtroom, Trump questioned why Cohen’s past criminal convictions had been excluded from evidence. “When are they going to look at all the lies and the last trial — he got caught lying in the last trial,” Trump said last week.

Prosecutors on Tuesday showed several videos of Trump from 2016 and early 2017 referencing Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, attacking the two for bringing forth false allegations. “All of these liars will be sued after the election is over,” he says in one such excerpt from a campaign stop in Gettysburg, Penn.

If attacking witnesses wasn’t enough, Trump has also publicly cast aspersions on the integrity of the jury selection process.

State attorneys pointed to the former president’s invocation of right-wing conspiracies about the jury selection process as the “most disturbing” example of his disregard for the public integrity of the case. In a Truth Social post, Trump quoted Fox News host Jesse Watters, who claimed: “They are catching undercover Liberal Activists lying to the Judge in order to get on the Trump jury.”

Prosecutor Chris Conroy called the alleged violations “willful beyond a reasonable doubt” in arguments before Merchan last week. “It’s clear he knows about the order, he knows what he’s not allowed to do, and he does it anyway,” Conroy added.

Trump’s attorney, Todd Blanche, at one point insisted to Merchan that Trump was aware of the gag order and trying to comply with it. Merchan wasn’t having it. “You’re losing all credibility,” Merchan responded. “I have to tell you right now, you’re losing all credibility with the court.”

After Judge Merchan handed down his ruling, he said he will allow Trump to attend his son Barron’s graduation, despite Trump and other right-wing figures alleging in the trial’s first week that Merchan would refuse to suspend the trial so Trump could attend the ceremony.

By lunchtime, the prosecution breezed through three witnesses who were called to authenticate video and documents. Keith Davidson, former lawyer for Daniels and McDougal, also took the witness stand on Tuesday.

Davidson explained how he heard of McDougal’s alleged affair with Trump while he was married to Melania, and how he had created a sense of urgency with National Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard about “catching” McDougal’s story before she sold it to ABC News. The prosecution showed a series of texts between Davidson and Howard, with Davidson at one point joking to Howard to “throw in an ambassadorship for me. I’m thinking Isle of Mann [sic].” When asked by Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass what he meant by that text, Davidson responded, “It was sort of in jest. It was a joke,” before adding, “But I think it was in reference to Mr. Trump’s candidacy. That somehow if Karen made this deal with AMI, it would help Donald Trump’s candidacy.”

In texts shared between Davidson and Howard, the Enquirer editor-in-chief at one point stated “fuck it, not my money. I’ll ask,” when Davidson asked for additional compensation for McDougal. In a series of back-and-forths, Davidson at one point admitted he was “trying like hell to avoid” speaking with Cohen about the deal.

Although Davidson would eventually work it out with Cohen, and McDougal would ultimately make the deal with the National Enquirer over ABC News because she didn’t want the story to be released, Davidson would soon find himself dealing with Cohen yet again — this time over Daniels.

News of Daniels’ alleged affair first surfaced in 2011 on a blog called The Dirty, prompting Cohen to call Davidson, who said the call was “not pleasant or constructive, and I didn’t particularly like dealing with him.”

Davidson tore into Cohen during the first day of his testimony, likening the former lawyer to the dog from Up. “Squirrel, squirrel,” Davidson jokingly mimicked in court, recalling a time he received a call from Cohen berating him only to be interrupted by Cohen himself answering another call while on the line with Davidson. “He was a pants-on-fire type.”

The lawyer paraphrased Daniels’ talent manager, Gina Rodriguez, who reportedly told Davidson, “‘We have this deal, it’s going to be the easiest deal you’ve ever done in your entire life,’” Davidson recalled her saying and laughing after telling the jurors it was far from the easiest deal of his life. He continued, saying she told him, “‘All you have to do is do the paperwork and talk to that asshole,’” being Cohen.

Throughout Davidson’s testimony on Tuesday, the lawyer repeatedly aired his frustration with Cohen when attempting to secure Daniels’ payment. “It seemed like he was trying to kick the can until after the election,” he admitted, adding he was given a myriad of excuses by Cohen before giving the then-presidential candidate’s fixer an ultimatum of pay up by end of business or Daniels would go public with her story.

Court concluded on Tuesday with Davidson explaining how Cohen’s repeated attempts to avoid paying Daniels the agreed-upon amount of $130,000 had caused frustration for both himself and Daniels. “The entire matter was very frustrating, that it was on again and off again, that there were delays in funding and cancellations, disengaging from clients and reengaging with clients, Stormy and Gina.”

At multiple times during Davidson’s testimony, he said Cohen would often inform him there was someone else who had the power to pay. “Well god dammit, what do you expect me to do? My guy is in five fucking states, three, four, five states, there’s nothing I can do,” Davidson testified, later identifying Trump as who he believed Cohen to be referring to as “my guy.”

“To me, it was a similar situation I run into all the time, it’s someone who doesn’t have the purse strings,” Davidson said, adding he often worked with his clients to earn buyouts from media companies. “That Micahel Cohen didn’t have the authority to spend the money.”

But once Davidson told Cohen of Daniels’ plans to go public if Cohen didn’t pay up, Cohen reportedly called Davidson and said he would “fund the deal.”

“He stated, ‘god dammit, I’ll just do it myself,’” Davidson told the court. “He would not seek authority to fund the deal.”

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