Judge will determine whether Trump violated gag order

A New York judge is expected to hear arguments Tuesday about whether former President Trump violated a gag order imposed against him in his gag case.

Prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office say Trump has so far violated the order prohibiting him from attacking witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and the judge’s family 10 times.

They asked Judge Juan Merchan to fine the former president $1,000 for each position he violated and to remind him that he could be arrested if he continues to circumvent the order. They also asked the judge to hold him in contempt.

“The defendant is aware of the April 1 order,” Assistant District Attorney Chris Conroy said last week. “We know this from the various posts he has made.”

The alleged violations were mostly published on Trump’s Truth Social, where he has made comments about potential witnesses in recent days. The gag order does not prevent Trump from attacking the judge or Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D).

A post, done on April 10ththanked a former lawyer for porn actress Stormy Daniels for “revealing the truth about two scoundrels who, with their lies and misrepresentations, cost our country dearly.”

The “sleazebags” in question were Daniels and Trump’s former fixer and personal attorney, Michael Cohen — both expected to be prominent witnesses in the district attorney’s case.

Another post smears Cohen as a “disgraced lawyer and criminal…prosecuted for lying” and suggests that a former Manhattan prosecutor who once oversaw the Trump investigation, Mark Pomerantz, should be “prosecuted for his terrible acts in and out of the prosecutor’s office.” .”

Trump vehemently opposed the joke, describing it as further proof that the cards are unfairly stacked against him in his first criminal trial.

“The gag order has to be lifted,” Trump told reporters on Friday. “People can talk about me and I have a gag order, just to show how much more unfair it is.”

“They took away my constitutional right to speak,” he added, even though he has spoken daily to reporters in court since the trial began.

Trump has appealed the gag order, arguing that it is an unconstitutional violation of his First Amendment rights, but it remains in effect as of now.

But his lawyers strongly rejected prosecutors’ claims that Trump’s posts violated the joke.

Lawyer Emil Bove stated that the publications cited “do not establish any intentional violations” and pointed to Cohen’s attacks as proof that Trump’s comments were related to his campaign. A consistent critic of Trump, Cohen has shared or reshared posts ridiculing the former president in recent days.

Possible consequences of violations of the gag order

If found to be in violation of the order, Merchan could order Trump to pay the fine or spend 30 days in jail per incident, in accordance with New York state law.

The judge could try to find a deal that would avoid Trump’s arrest so early in the case, Obama White House ethics lawyer Norm Eisen and four other experts argued in a blog post for security only.

“We expect the court to impose fines against Trump for a substantial number of violations and warn him that future violations will result in additional fines and potentially prison time,” they wrote. “The more difficult question to answer, however, is whether any finding of contempt and the resulting punishment will deter this specific defendant from future violations. Past history suggests so.

Trump’s lawyers also rejected the idea that republications of other individuals’ public comments qualify as a violation of the order. Five of the alleged violations involved Trump or his campaign republishing a New York Post op-ed that called Cohen a “serial perjurer,” and two other potential violations involved resharing from other media.

“The judge would be on solid legal grounds to sanction Trump for all of the statements, but out of an abundance of caution, could single out some of the republications to take a balanced and incremental approach,” Eisen and the other experts wrote in the blog post.

Gag orders in other Trump cases

Merchan’s gag order on Trump is not the first he has faced as he navigates multiple civil and criminal trials.

At Trump’s civil fraud trial in New York, the judge also imposed a gag order on Trump that prevented him from making public comments about court officials. He faces a gag order that prohibits him from attacking key witnesses or prosecutors, except special prosecutor Jack Smith, also in his federal election interference case.

The former president racked up $15,000 in fines for skirting the fraud trial judge’s directive, and when Trump was asked to take the stand to explain himself, the judge ruled that his testimony sounded “empty and false.”

Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records in his criminal trial in New York, which centers on a secret deal made with Daniels before the 2016 election to hide an alleged affair. Trump pleaded not guilty and denied the case.

On Monday, prosecutors told the jury that the Daniels deal was part of a broader scheme to quell bad press about Trump ahead of the 2016 election. Defense attorneys argued that hush money in and of itself is not illegal. and suggested that Trump’s agreements were no different from the average confidentiality agreement.

David Pecker — the former CEO of American Media, the tabloid company that allegedly helped Trump delay unflattering coverage — was called as the district attorney’s first witness on Monday. After the gag hearing on Tuesday, his testimony is expected to resume.