05/06/2024
The judge of history trial of Donald Trump This Monday he threatened the former president with jail andn case you continue to violate your order prohibiting you from speaking ill of witnesses, jurors, and court personnel in public.
Judge Juan Merchan imposed a new fine of $1,000 on himwhich is added to other sanctions of 9,000 for nine previous violations of the court order that prohibits him from referring to anything related to the trial on his social networks.
In his decision, the judge warned him that because this is the tenth time the court has found him guilty of disobeying its orders, “It seems clear that fines will not be enough to deter the defendant from violating legal orders.”
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“As much as I don’t want to impose a jail sentence on you… I want you to understand that I will do it.”Judge Merchan warned the first former president in the history of the United States to sit on the bench.
On this occasion, Trump is fined for having criticized in an interview the speed (one week) with which the jury was chosen and its supposed composition in a majority Democratic city.
Trump, a 77-year-old Republican, is accused of 34 falsifications of commercial documents to reimburse his then personal lawyer Michael Cohen for paying $130,000 to buy the silence of former porn actress Stormy Daniels a few days before the 2016 elections, which she won against Democrat Hillary Clinton.
“At the end of the day I have a job to do and part of that job is maintaining the dignity of the justice system” the judge said, calling Trump’s challenge a “direct attack on the rule of law.”
The judge recognized that put him behind bars for contempt It would be a major decision and a logistical challenge.
As former president, Trump receives 24-hour protection from the United States Secret Service and Merchan said, “The last thing I want to do is put you in jail.” And he added: “I’m also worried about the people who would have to carry out” that arrest.
“Crisis”
Prosecutors then called his next witness, Jeffrey McConney, a Trump Organization executive that he explained to the jury about reimbursements to Cohen for money paid to Daniels to maintain his silence.
It is expected that Daniels, 45, and Cohen, 57Trump’s former lawyer who has become his sworn enemy, testify at some point during the trial which is held in Manhattan Superior Court.
Hope Hicks, Trump’s former close adviser, spoke last week about the “crisis” that affected the 2016 presidential campaign after a recording appeared in which the magnate boasted that someone famous like him could afford anything to conquer women, touching their genitals without them flinching.
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Hicks admitted that she was “a little stunned” by that recording called “Access Hollywood.”
“To“We both agreed that the film was harmful, it was a crisis”said Hicks, who was a key player in the final stages of Trump’s successful 2016 presidential campaign, when payments to Daniels were allegedly made.
According to prosecutors, Panic over recording triggered Trump campaign effort to silence Danielswho threatened to make public an alleged extramarital relationship that she had with the tycoon in 2006, and which he has always denied.
The payment itself is not a crime. But Trump is accused of disguising it as his lawyer’s legal expenses.
In the middle of the election campaignTrump considers himself the victim of a “witch hunt” and a legal conspiracy by the Democrats with current President Joe Biden at the helm, to prevent him from making his long-awaited return to the White House.
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In addition to the New York caseTrump has been accused in Washington and Georgia of plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election that Biden won, and to take highly secret documents to his Florida home that could compromise the security of the State at the end of his presidency in 2021.
