It has been noted that Judge Juan Merchan has ruled Tuesday on the gag order against former President Donald Trump and found that he violated the original gag order nine times. Trump was fined $1,000 per violation and ordered to take the offending social media posts down by 2:15 PM ET on Tuesday via Mediaite.
Trump was fined a total of $9,000 and had ordered to bring down seven “offending posts” from social media and two from his campaign web site. Merchan also issued a warning that further violation may result in incarceration:
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.
It has also come to light that Tuesday’s ruling does not apply to the alleged four new instances of possible violations that prosecutors raised in court on Thursday. A separate hearing is scheduled for May 2 to address those.
Meanwhile, Merchan had instructed Trump not to publicly comment on court personnel or witnesses, and prosecutors argued Tuesday that he had done so on at least ten occasions. Eight violations, prosecutors argued, were committed by Trump in his Truth Social posts and in those he went after Merchan, his daughter, former lawyer and star witness for the prosecution Michael Cohen, and others.
The gag order issued by Merchan in late March specifically bans Trump from “making or directing others to make public statements about” potential witnesses in the case, the jurors, and the family members of the court staff or counsel in the case — among others, not including Merchan himself.
