Maddow Blog | While Judge Merchan holds Trump in contempt, what happens now?

It was a few weeks ago when the Judge Juan Merchan first imposed a gag order about donald trump in his silence/falsification of business records case. The former president responded soon after by going after the judge’s daughter — publicly and repeatedly – what led to a revised gag order.

The Republican was told he could still speak publicly about much of the case — he rarely stops talking about it — but, among other things, the criminal defendant is should abstain to make public statements regarding jurors and witnesses.

This proved problematic when the criminal suspect used his social media platform to criticize jurors and witnesses.

Local promoters asked the judge overseeing the case to hold Trump in contempt. As NBC News reportedthat’s exactly what happened.

Like my MSNBC colleague Jordan Rubin explainedthe jurist “also ordered Trump to remove the seven offending posts from his Truth Social account and the two offending posts from his campaign website by 2:15 p.m. Tuesday.”

The Trump team, in fact, delivered ahead of schedule.

At this point, I imagine some readers are probably thinking, “Wait, $1,000 for each violation is only $9,000. Trump has a lot of financial problems, but this will not create a major disincentive for him to comply with the court order.”

But it’s not that simple. For one thing, Merchan admitted that the fines are modest but represent the legal maximum in these circumstances.

On the other hand, this did not represent all of the judge’s resistance: Merchan also warned in his decision that he would not tolerate further violations of the order and said that “if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances”, he would impose “an incarceratory punishment”. about the defendant.

In other words, if Trump continues to push his luck, he risks being arrested the next time he runs afoul of the gag order.

Let’s not forget that it was earlier this month that Trump used his social media platform declare that it would be a “great honor” to be arrested for violating a gag order. As part of the same boast, the former president compared himself — with apparent seriousness — for Nelson Mandela.

We will now see whether the presumptive Republican Party nominee intends to back up this rhetorical chest-thumping with deliberate violations of a judicial gag order. I have a hunch Trump will find it much easier to simply comply.

As for the bigger picture, it’s worth pausing to emphasize that although the former president’s jury trial is far from over, it is now fair to say that Trump has already suffered a major defeat. It’s also history in the making: the Republican is now the first former president in American history to be held in criminal contempt.

This post updates our related previous coverage.

This article was originally published in MSNBC.com