Donald Trump has been fined $9,000 for nine violations of a gag order in his New York criminal trial, with the presiding judge warning that further breaches could lead to jail time. Judge Juan Merchan imposed the maximum financial penalty allowed under New York state law on Tuesday, ruling that the former president had violated the order in nine out of ten instances alleged by prosecutors.
The gag order prohibits Trump from making public statements about trial participants, including witnesses such as Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels. Merchan ordered Trump to remove the offending posts from his Truth Social account and campaign website, and warned that continued willful violations would not be tolerated. “If necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, it will impose an incarceratory punishment,” Merchan wrote.
Further penalties could be forthcoming as soon as Thursday, when the judge is scheduled to hear arguments from Manhattan district attorney prosecutors that Trump violated the gag order several more times since the initial list of ten. However, Merchan also admonished Michael Cohen, suggesting that if he continued to deliberately aggravate Trump on social media, he might be exempted from the gag order's protections.
Trump's lawyer, Todd Blanche, had argued that most posts were responses to political attacks or reposts of media content. But Merchan was skeptical, noting that one post was not a simple repost but included Trump's own additions with quotation marks. The gag order was expanded earlier this month after Merchan rebuked Trump for making “threatening, inflammatory, denigrating” statements.
