- Trump was found in contempt Thursday for nine violations of his hush-money gag order.
- Trump was fined $9,000, and warned he could be jailed over future violations.
Donald Trump is in contempt of court and must pay a $9,000 fine for violating his gag order nine times, the judge presiding over the Manhattan hush-money trial ruled on Thursday.
The fine represents the $1,000 maximum per violation allowed under New York state law, state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan said in a written decision.
Given that low maximum — and that Trump "can easily afford such a fine" — future violations could result in jail, the judge warned.
New York law allows for a maximum of 30 days of incarceration per violation.
"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," Merchan wrote in his contempt order.
Trump has until May 3 to pay the fine. He was also ordered to take down the offending nine posts.
Read Trump's contempt order here.
Trump violated his gag by questioning the impartiality of his jury and by attacking trial witnesses Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels as liars on Truth Social and on his campaign website, the judge found.
Prosecutors failed to establish that what they saw as a tenth violation — involving a Truth Social post from April 10 — violated the gag, the judge found.
Re-posting does not make it ok
The judge rejected defense lawyers' claims that it's fine for Trump to re-post attacks by others.
"Both the Truth Social account and the official campaign website exclusively represent the opinions and views of the Defendant," the judge wrote.
"Defendant curated the posts at issues, and then took the necessary steps to publish the posts on his Truth Social account and on his campaign website," the judge also noted.
"In doing so, he endorsed the posts with one purpose in mind — to maximize viewership and to communicate his stamp of approval," the judge wrote.
More contempt on the near horizon
Trump still faces a potential additional contempt finding — along with more fines — for four alleged violations from last week. A hearing on those four most recent alleged violations has been scheduled for Thursday.
In those violations, Trump again disparaged jurors, Cohen, and another key prosecution witness — former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker — in on-camera statements from Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday of last week.
Prosecutors have alleged a total of 14 gag violations, all from April.
Merchan found Trump in contempt outside the jury's hearing on Tuesday, before the start of direct testimony by the trial's third witness, Gary Farro, a former banker for Cohen.
The judge did not reprimand or warn Trump in briefly announcing his contempt finding from the bench, saying merely, "the court finds the people have met their burden" of proving contempt.
But in writing, the warning of jail was clear.
"While $1,000 may suffice in most instances to protect the judicial system, to compel respect for its mandates and to punish the offender for disobeying a court order, it unfortunately will not achieve the desired result in those instances where the contemnor can easily afford the fine," Merchan wrote.
"In those circumstances, it would be preferable if the court could impose a fine more commensurate with the wealth of the contemnor," the judge wrote.
"In some cases that might be a $2,500 fine, in other cases it might be a fine of $150,000," he wrote.
"Because this court is not cloaked with such discretion, it must therefore consider whether in some instances, jail may be a necessary punishment."
The single post that the judge disagreed with prosecutors on involved Trump's re-"Truthing," on April 10, of a social media post by Avenatti, who was convicted of stealing from Daniels while her lawyer.
Trump re-"Truthed" an Avenatti post reading, "We can't be hypocrites when it comes to the 1st Amendment. It is outrageous that Cohen and Daniels can do countless TV interviews, post on social, & make $$ on bogus documentaries — all by talking shit about Trump — but he's gagged and threatened with jail if he responds."
Trump then added, in his own words, "Thank you to Michael Avenatti — for revealing the truth about two sleaze bags who have, with their lies and misrepresentations, cost our Country dearly!"
In allowing this one post, the judge said he was giving Trump the benefit of the doubt.
Responses to political attacks are allowed under the gag, and in re-"Truthing" Avenatti, Trump may have been responding to a political attack by Cohen from the day before, the judge wrote.
Cohen had posted on April 9 that Avenatti would likely be pardoned if Trump wins a second term as president.
The "tenuous correlation" between Cohen's April 9 post and Trump's April 10 re-posting of Avenatti "is sufficient to give this court pause as to whether the people have met their burden," Merchan wrote.
Trump's 1st Amendment rights as a candidate
Trump's gag is limited — including to the extent it allows responses to political attacks — in acknowledgment of what Merchan, in his ruling, called "Defendant's First Amendment rights, particularly given his candidacy for the office of President of the United States."
"It is critically important that Defendant's legitimate free speech rights not be curtailed, that he be able to fully campaign for the office which he seeks and that he be able to respond and defend himself against political attacks," the judge wrote.
The judge warned, in his order, that "potential witnesses" — he did not mention Cohen and Daniels specifically — should not use the gag "as a sword instead of a shield."
Both Cohen and Daniels have attacked Trump relentlessly on their own social media.
In Tuesday's ruling, the judge implied that if the two key witnesses continue to bash Trump online, he'd weigh that "when determining appropriate punishment, if any" for future gag violations.
The undertow effect
Prosecutor Christopher Conroy has called Trump's 14 posts a threat to the trial, now in its second week of testimony.
Other witnesses, beyond Cohen and Daniels, see these posts and are also intimidated, the prosecutor had argued, calling it "sort of the undertow effect."
"The defendant is having his day in court," Conroy had argued. "Unfortunately," the prosecutor added, "he is doing everything he can to undermine this process."
Defense lawyer Todd Blanche had countered in court that Trump had been "trying to comply" with the gag order.
The order, issued April 1, bars Trump from making statements about jurors, witnesses, and certain trial staff and their family members, if those statements could influence the trial.
"President Trump is being very careful," Blanche had added in arguments.
It was at this point that Merchan lashed into Blanche.
"You're losing all credibility with the court," Merchan told the lawyer, his voice frustrated.