The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial on Thursday signaled he might impose more fines on the former U.S. president for violating a gag order that prohibits him from talking about witnesses and jurors.
Justice Juan Merchan challenged a defense assertion that Trump did not violate the gag order when he said the Manhattan jury in the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president was picked from a heavily Democratic area. “I’m making an argument that he didn’t,” Trump lawyer Todd Blanche told the judge.
“Well I’m not agreeing with that argument,” Merchan responded without saying whether or when he would impose a fine.
Prosecutors are asking Merchan to fine Trump $4,000 for violating the gag order four times last week. In one instance, the Republican Trump said in a TV interview that “that jury was picked so fast - 95% Democrats. The area’s mostly all Democrat.”
The law specifically sets the fine at max $1000 per offence. The judge doesn’t have the authority to set higher fines.
But he was already fined once, the judge can absolutely escalate to jail time now… But Trump is untouchable apparently, so he keeps imposing meaningless fines
This is simply half true.
The judge can jail trump.
Sure, but when Trump violates again, that doesn’t give the judge anything else to escalate to.