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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
Donald Trump fined $9,000 for violating gag order in hush money case | |
By Kara Scannell, Lauren del Valle, Jeremy Herb and Eric Levenson, CNN | |
Updated: | |
1:46 PM EDT, Tue April 30, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
New York Judge Juan Merchan has for repeatedly violating the gag order | |
in the . | |
Merchan ruled Trump violated the gag order nine times for criticizing | |
expected trial witnesses in posts on social media and his campaign | |
page. Trump must pay the $9,000 fine by the end of the week. | |
Merchan also threatened incarceration if Trump willfully violates the | |
gag order again, writing in his ruling, “THEREFORE, Defendant is | |
hereby warned 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.” | |
Trump did not visibly react as the judge was reading his decision in | |
court. | |
Trump on Tuesday afternoon removed the seven “offending posts” | |
from Truth Social and the two “offending posts” from his campaign | |
website, as Merchan ordered. | |
Reposts are endorsements, judge says | |
In last week’s hearing on , Trump’s defense argued that reposts of | |
other people’s words do not violate the gag order and that the posts | |
represent protected political speech in response to attacks. | |
Merchan rejected both arguments in his Tuesday. | |
First, he found that reposts are, in this case, endorsements. | |
“There can be no doubt whatsoever, that Defendant’s intent and | |
purpose when reposting, is to communicate to his audience that he | |
endorses and adopts the posted statement as his own,” Merchan wrote. | |
Second, Merchan acknowledged that the gag order does allow Trump to | |
respond to political attacks, but said criticisms of key witnesses were | |
not allowed. | |
“To allow such attacks upon protected witnesses with blanket | |
assertions that they are all responses to ‘political attacks’ would | |
be an exception that swallowed the rule. The Expanded Order does not | |
contain such an exception,” he wrote. | |
Prosecutors had asked Merchan to hold Trump in contempt for violating | |
the gag order, citing 10 social media posts from before and during the | |
trial where the district attorney’s office accused Trump of violating | |
the judge’s restrictions barring Trump from commenting on witnesses | |
and jurors. They also want the posts taken down. | |
Prosecutors cited Trump’s comments about Michael Cohen, Stormy | |
Daniels and the makeup of the jury pool. | |
The judge made the ruling after a hearing last week that, at times, | |
got heated between him and Trump’s defense attorney Todd Blanche. | |
Prosecutors have subsequently flagged an additional four comments that | |
Trump has made since last week’s hearing, including about Cohen and | |
former AMI chief David Pecker, who testified last week. Merchan has | |
scheduled another hearing on Thursday to address those comments. | |
$1,000 per violation is the maximum allowed by New York State law. | |
This is the first sanction against Trump for violating the gag order in | |
this case. | |
This story has been updated with additional details. | |
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