Judge Adds Another Gag Order Punishment for Trump, Says 'Jail Sentence' Is Next
The judge presiding over the trial of former President Donald Trump for falsification of business records has threatened Trump with jail time if he continues to violate the judge’s gag order than some legal experts have said is unconstitutional.
Judge Juan Merchan said Monday that since it was “clear” that the previous 10 $1,000 fines levied against the former president weren’t effective — current estimates of his net worth indicate that he could pay such a fine millions of times over and remain a billionaire — jail might be the only reasonable option.
Merchan made the comments as he imposed the 10th fine against Trump for ignoring the gag order the judge put in place before the trial even began.
The order prohibits Trump, 77, from making public statements about witnesses, the prosecution, court or district attorney’s office staff, or any of their families.
In the court filing imposing the most recent fine, Merchan wrote that Trump is “hereby put on notice that if appropriate and warranted, future violations of its lawful orders will be punishable by incarceration,” Fox News reported.
“The last thing I want to consider is jail,” Merchan said in court Monday morning, according to Fox. “You are [the] former president and possibly the next president.”
He said he understood that enforcing such an order would be problematic — in fact, a former deputy independent counsel for the Whitewater and Clinton-Lewinsky investigations said it would be “interesting” to see if the Secret Service, which is responsible for Trump’s protection, would even allow it to happen.
“The magnitude of that decision is not lost on me,” Merchan said, according to Fox. “Your continued willful violation of the court’s order … constitutes a direct attack … and will not be allowed to continue … It is not allowed to continue.”
Attorney Sol Wisenberg, who famously questioned then-President Bill Clinton in videotaped grand jury testimony about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, told Fox’s Laura Ingraham that he didn’t think it would happen.
“I don’t think it’s very likely that he’s going to be put in jail,” Wisenberg said. “And that would be an interesting federalism question, wouldn’t it? Would the Secret Service let them do that, Laura? I don’t know.”
Fellow attorney David Schoen, who defended Trump during his second impeachment hearing before the House, said Merchan was just playing to his fans among the left.
“Merchan is someone who in my view lives to please these sort of folks, and he loves to exert his power,” Schoen told Ingraham. “He’s a very insecure sort of guy and he’s a bully, in my experience with him. So he’ll try to do it if he thinks he can get away with it and be a hero. But it’s so abusive.”
“Michael Cohen gets to speak freely, they say these horrible things that any defendant ought to be able to respond to,” he added. “They had a long speaking indictment in this case playing out charges that anybody can download, but Trump’s not allowed to speak.”
Schoen added that the gag order wasn’t even the “most dangerous” order Merchan had made in the case.
“Merchan literally ordered the press not to report on anything that they see,” he explained. “That denies the defendant his constitutional right to a public trial and the public’s independent right to a public trial. These are fundamental to our Constitution to fair trial rights.
Wisenberg agreed.
“It’s completely and unequivocally unconstitutional for him to do that,” he said of Merchan’s order to the media.
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