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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
Opinion: Trump should go to jail if he violates judge’s gag order | |
again | |
Opinion by Norman Eisen | |
Updated: | |
3:42 PM EDT, Tue April 30, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
Tuesday morning brought one of the most striking moments yet in the | |
Manhattan criminal trial of former President Donald Trump, proceedings | |
that have already been . | |
In a low-key manner, Justice Juan Merchan delivered a high-impact to | |
Trump: that he was in contempt of court. Merchan sanctioned Trump for | |
for nine posts and reposts on his Truth Social site and campaign | |
website, in his Manhattan prosecution. (One of the 10 statements at | |
issue was on Trump and so was not sanctioned.) The judge ordered Trump | |
to pay $9,000 in fines for the comments — the statutory maximum of | |
$1,000 for each violation — and to remove all of the offending posts, | |
. | |
But Merchan did not stop there. In his written order, summarized from | |
the bench at the start of the trial on Tuesday, the judge also Trump | |
that if he persists in violating the , he faces jail time. Merchan that | |
the maximum fine of $1,000 per offense may not suffice as a deterrent | |
for wealthier individuals found in contempt of court, and that the | |
court “must therefore consider whether in some instances, jail may be | |
a necessary punishment.” | |
Trump had persisted in outside the courtroom even after the prosecution | |
started the process of seeking the contempt ruling delivered Tuesday | |
— and, as the judge’s order suggests, the former president’s | |
history does not inspire confidence that he will stop. Moreover, before | |
the trial began, Trump essentially to incarcerate him, claiming jail | |
time would make him a “modern-day Nelson Mandela.” | |
If Trump continues, the judge should take him up on it. For Merchan to | |
bring this to an end, he may have to give Trump a night behind bars, | |
following with longer stays in the “clink,” , until he honors the | |
judge’s order. | |
Trump’s pattern of noncompliance is clear: were documented by the | |
prosecution alone after the to the judge. Merchan scheduled a hearing | |
for Thursday on these four new statements, which will bring additional | |
penalties beyond the fine levied Tuesday if the judge agrees they | |
violated the gag order. That makes a total 14 incidents that | |
prosecutors have complained about since April 10. | |
When the judge has the hearing on Thursday on incidents 11 to 14, which | |
are likely to elicit fines and warnings only since Trump had not yet | |
been held in contempt when he made the four new statements, he should | |
tell Trump in no uncertain terms that if there is a 15th incident, he | |
will promptly act to give Trump an overnight stay in jail — imposing | |
longer ones if Trump keeps it up. | |
Incarceration for repeated contempt is hardly unheard of; indeed, | |
it’s explicitly by the law as a punishment. The step would of | |
course be hugely controversial here because of the identity of the | |
defendant. But the core American principle that no one is above the law | |
requires the judge to look past that at some point. After the three | |
decades I have spent in courtrooms as an attorney, I tend to think | |
Trump has already gotten a break while anyone — anyone — else would | |
have gotten more severe treatment for the same actions. | |
Reading the powerful written , I think Merchan seems ready to follow | |
through on his words and take the next, carceral step if Trump keeps | |
making statements about witnesses and jurors after the 14th time. If | |
Trump is allowed to run roughshod over the judicial system and disobey | |
orders of the court, that threatens the fair administration of justice | |
as well as the perception of it. | |
Ergo the judge’s severe written warning this morning. Now we will see | |
if Trump is chastened, or if he meant it when he dared the judge to | |
step him back. | |
The most immediate threat that Trump’s statements represent is to the | |
jury, and Merchan made that clear in his strong words. Trump was | |
sanctioned for on his Truth Social platform that there were | |
“undercover Liberal Activists lying to the Judge in order to get on | |
the Trump Jury.” The next day, one juror asked to be excused after | |
being selected, concerns that her identity would be revealed. And | |
that’s not an idle fear: Trump has attacked many of those he | |
perceives as a threat, even court staff and grand jurors in — and | |
he is well aware of the impact his words have on his followers. That | |
brings unwanted risk of revelation. | |
The judge’s sanctions — and the warning that more will come if | |
needed — also responded to Trump training his considerable ire at the | |
expected witnesses in this case, including former Trump lawyer Michael | |
Cohen and adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Trump’s words can have | |
at least two dangerous consequences: subjecting these individuals to an | |
onslaught of personal attacks, and attempting to by injecting into the | |
public sphere arguments his lawyers cannot make in court. | |
Perhaps the new sanctions — or those likely to come in response to | |
the newest four allegations of gag order violations — will be the end | |
of it. Trump did eventually cease his when the judge there warned� | |
Trump was reaching the end of his tether. | |
But if he does not stop in his criminal trial, and the judge acts, | |
Trump will have no legal recourse. He already one effort to attack the | |
gag order in the New York appellate court. As I have , Trump’s | |
argument that the gag order infringes his First Amendment rights is | |
specious. And his repeated assertions that Merchan is somehow out to | |
get him are also unmerited. In any event, even if Trump believes those | |
things, that is no excuse under New York law to violate a court order. | |
Trump may think this is a win-win situation: Either the judge backs | |
down and Trump continues to attack witnesses and jurors freely, or the | |
judge steps up and actually imprisons him, and Trump will declare | |
himself a political prisoner. But Trump’s claims of martyrdom are | |
self-evidently risible, and the judge’s responsibility is only to | |
protect the integrity of his proceedings and the rule of law. | |
If Trump continues to violate the gag order — even just once, after | |
already having been found to be in contempt — then Merchan should | |
follow through and incarcerate him, as the law clearly provides. The | |
Secret Service has with local law enforcement about protection for a | |
president behind bars. As a former White House official who dealt | |
regularly with the Secret Service relating to a sitting president, I do | |
not think the unique security concerns here for a former one will be an | |
impediment to complying with the punishment handed down by the judge. | |
Such a ruling would send a clarion message to the jurors in this case, | |
and to the American people: Anyone who intimidates ordinary private | |
citizens fulfilling their civic duty will pay a severe price, even if | |
you are a former president. | |
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