Before testimony resumed in the Hush Trump trial in New York City, the judge ruled on the first bunch of prosecutor-driven complaints about how the former president and current 2024 presidential candidate broke his gag order. The judge found that Donald Trump had indeed broken his gag order and then fined him the maximum amount per violation.
Prosecutors filed complaints in three different groupings for a total of 14 charges of breaking what is widely believed by constitutional lawyers to be illegal and unconstitutional gagging of a defendant. This first tranche was from Trump's TruthSocial accounts. See the list of his contretemps below.
In today's ruling, Trump was found in contempt for nine statements he made on his social media site for a total of a $9,000 fine.
Judge Juan Merchan told Trump that if he kept doing it he'd consider locking him up, or as the Joe Biden donor put it in his order:
Defendant is hereby warned that the Court will not tolerate willful violations of its lawful orders and that if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, it will impose an incarceratory punishment.
Quickly, here are the nine violations of the order according to Judge Mechan:
"We can't be hypocrites when it comes to the 1st Amendment," Avenatti wrote. "It is outrageous that Cohen and Daniels can do countless TV interviews, post on social, & make $$ on bogus documentaries - all by talking s**t about Trump - but he's gagged and threatened with jail if he responds."
"Thank you to Michael Avenatti," Trump posted in response, "for revealing the truth about two sleaze bags who have, with their lies and misrepresentations, cost our Country dearly!
- In another post, he reminded readers that the woman who signed the nondisclosure agreement with Trump's attorney Michael Cohen testified that she and Trump had never had sexual relations. That was deemed a violation.
Other violations include:
- Going after witness Michael Cohen in multiple posts for being a convicted felon and multiple perjurer for lying to Congress. Cohen also was convicted of his own tax fraud charges. The post also named Mark Pomerantz, one of the prosecutors who wrote a book on how to Get Trump.
- Trump shared a National Review article entitled, "No, Cohen's Guilty Plea Does Not Prove Trump Committed Campaign-Finance Crimes."
- Trump was fined for quoting a Fox News story about all the "undercover" liberals trying to get on the Trump jury.
- "Disparaging" jurors in an interview when he said they were 90% liberals.
- Calling his old friend, National Enquirer publisher, David Pecker "a nice guy." I wrote about this issue here.
This is all First Amendment-protected activity, of course, and the truth is an absolute defense. But not when you're Donald Trump, under a gag order, and accused of non-crimes. The only thing missing in the courtroom, besides a heater and a laugh track, are kangaroos. You may hate Trump as the most vile human on the planet, but if you are a person who values judicial integrity, equal protection, and equal justice, you would and should be appalled at this trial.
For Our VIPs: NYC Prosecutors: Call it a 'Hush Money' Trial, but Just Don't Call Him 'President' Trump
Trump appealed the gag order and was denied in January. He filed another appeal to a New York appeals court judge, who denied it as well as a change of venue.
The media have called this case a "hush money" case, but one of our crafty commenters called it the Hush Trump case. Touché. When a judge shuts up the defendant but not the other trial participants, you can't help but wonder if the fix is in. Where else will you read that in this censorious media world we're living in?
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