Judge Juan Merchan threatens Donald Trump with jail time if he keeps violating gag order

Judge Juan Merchan threatened Donald Trump with jail time as he held Trump in criminal contempt for a 10th gag order violation Monday.

Merchan has issued a gag order in Trump's criminal hush money trial, prohibiting Trump from publicly commenting on jurors or on the participation of potential witnesses. He also placed restrictions on Trump to protect court staff, prosecutors, their family members, and family members of the judge.

The Monday decision comes after Trump was already held in criminal contempt for nine other gag order violations, each carrying a $1,000 penalty. When Merchan issued the first ruling, he said jail time was a possible punishment. Prosecutors also introduced four other violation allegations, which Merchan held a hearing on before jurors were seated Thursday morning.

Merchan only found evidence beyond a reasonable doubt for one of those occasions, according to the Monday ruling published online. Speaking in the courtroom Monday morning, Merchan said the fines evidently weren't deterring Trump, and therefore "going forward" Merchan will consider a jail sanction "if necessary and appropriate."

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Trump held in contempt for interview comments

Merchan found Trump violated the gag order by making comments about the jury in a phone interview on "Just The News, No Noise" TV show broadcast on April 22 by Real America's Voice network.

"But this judge, uh, said that I can't get away from the trial. You know he's rushing the trial like crazy. Nobody's ever seen a thing go like this," Trump said in the interview. "That jury was picked so fast — 95% Democrats. The area's mostly all Democrat. You think of it as a — just a purely Democrat area. It's a very unfair situation that I can tell you."

Manhattan voted 87% for President Biden in 2020, but the partisan registration and voting behavior of the jurors is not known and Trump's lawyers successfully removed anyone with evidence of strong antipathy against Trump from the jury pool.

Merchan's decision states that Trump must pay a $1,000 fine for the violation, and future violations could be punishable with jail time.

"Defendant violated the Order by making public statements about the jury and how it was selected," Merchan's ruling states. "In doing so, Defendant not only called into question the integrity, and therefore the legitimacy of these proceedings, but again raised the specter of fear for the safety of the jurors and of their loved ones."

Merchan found insufficient evidence for three other gag order violation allegations

Merchan found insufficient evidence for the three other gag order violation allegations brought forward by prosecutors, as outlined in the ruling. Those allegations were:

• April 22 comments Trump made as he left court. Trump gave an eight-minute talk to reporters on his way out of the courthouse that day, talking about his former lawyer Michael Cohen's previous legal issues: "He got caught lying in the last trial. So he got caught lying, pure lying. And when are they going to look at that?"
• An interview on "Action News," which aired on an ABC News affiliate in Pennsylvania on April 23. "Michael Cohen is a convicted liar, and he's got no credibility whatsoever. He was a lawyer and you rely on your lawyers. But Michael Cohen was a convicted liar. He was a lawyer for many people, not just me. Then he got in trouble because of things outside of what he did for me," Trump said in the interview.
• April 25 comments Trump made on his way into court. "David's been very nice," Trump said, in reference to David Pecker, the former CEO of American Media Inc.

Merchan said he couldn't find beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump violated the gag order on these occasions. The judge said two of those alleged violations, the comments about Cohen, may constitute protected political speech, while the third, the comments about Pecker may not have constituted a veiled threat against a witness.

What is a gag order?

A gag order restricts parties in a legal case from sharing certain information about a case publicly. A judge must balance the right to free speech and the court's interest in preserving the integrity of the trial when issuing such orders.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office had asked for a gag order that would restrict Trump's comments outside of court in order to protect potential witnesses and jurors. He argued that Trump had "a long history of making public and inflammatory remarks” about people in other lawsuits.

Merchan granted the request in March, and expanded it in April to include family members of the judge or Bragg.

Trump claimed to reporters Thursday evening that he cannot testify in the case because of the gag order. But the gag order applies only to certain "extrajudicial statements," meaning comments made outside of court. Merchan explained that to Trump Friday morning.

Trump already held in contempt for nine gag order violations

On April 30, Merchan found Trump had violated the gag order nine times out of the 10 occasions submitted by prosecutors.

Several of the violations came by way of Trump's posts on Truth Social, including comments about Cohen and the jury. He was ordered to take down the posts that day and pay the fine by the end of the week, both of which he did.

Trump was previously fined $15,000 for violating a gag order in his civil business fraud trial in New York last year.

Contributing: Bart Jansen