Judge fines Trump $9,000 for breaching hush money trial silence

New York Judge Juan Merchan has fined former President Donald Trump $9,000 for repeatedly breaching a court-ordered silence during his ongoing trial over hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. In total, MerCHAN found that Trump had violated the gag order nine times by criticising expected witnesses in posts on social media and his campaign website. The judge warned Trump that he would face imprisonment if he willfully breaches the silence again in future. During a hearing last week to address alleged contempt of court offences, Trump’s defence argued that reposting other people’s comments did not violate the gag order as they represented protected political speech responding to attacks against him. However, Merchan dismissed both arguments in his ruling today (April 26), saying: “Defendant’s intent and purpose when reposting is to communicate to his audience that he endorses and adopts the posted statement as his own.” The judge acknowledged that Trump was entitled to respond politically to attacks, but said criticisms of key witnesses were barred because “allow such attacks upon protected witnesses with blanket assertions…would swallow the rule”. Prosecutors had asked Merchan to punish Trump for contempt after accusing him of breaching restrictions preventing comments on witnesses and jurors. They cited 14 posts that prosecuted the claim before this week’s ruling, focusing primarily around Trump’s criticism of Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels. In a hearing last Thursday (April 22), Merchan chided Trump attorney Todd Blanche over his defence for breaching court orders multiple times. Prosecutors have since flagged four additional comments made by the former president after that date, including about Cohen and David Pecker, who testified at the trial on Wednesday. This is the first time Trump has been penalised in this case for violating a gag order. The maximum fine allowed under New York State law for such offences stands at $1,000 per violation.