Judge Merchan Fines Trump $9,000 for Violating Gag Order

MARY CHASTAIN APR 30, 2024 10:16 AM

Judge Juan Merchan, who oversees the hush money case, fined President Donald Trump $9,000 for nine gag order violations:

The decision comes days after a hearing was held to determine whether Trump’s recent social media posts about certain witnesses in the case truly violated the order, including whether merely reposting content others had written about the case amounted to a violation.Trump lawyer Todd Blanche argued last week that his client was responding to political attacks, adding there was “absolutely no willful violation of the gag order.”The former president released a statement on Wednesday decrying the gag order as “totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL!”“The Conflicted Judge’s friends and party members can say whatever they want about me, but I am not allowed to respond,” Trump posted to Truth Social last Tuesday. He also ripped judges who presided over a civil fraud case against the Trump Organization, Justice Arthur Engoron, and who oversaw his defamation trial, Judge Lewis Kaplan.

The gag order:

• Making or directing others to make public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses concerning their potential participation in the investigation or in this criminal proceeding;
• Making or directing others to make public statements about (1) counsel in the case other than the District Attorney, (2) members of the court’s staff and the District Attorney’s staff, or (3) the family members of any counsel or staff member, if those statements are made with the intent to materially interfere with, or to cause others to materially interfere with, counsel’s or staff’s work in this criminal case, or with the knowledge that such interference is likely to result; and
• Making or directing others to make public statements about any prospective juror or any juror in this criminal proceeding.

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