Trump hush-money trial judge to weigh more fines for defying gag order

[May 02, 2024]  By Jack Queen, Jody Godoy and Andy Sullivan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York prosecutors on Thursday will ask the judge overseeing Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial to impose more fines on the former U.S. president for violating a gag order that prohibits him from talking about witnesses and jurors.

The $4,000 total penalty prosecutors are seeking would come on top of a $9,000 fine Justice Juan Merchan imposed on Tuesday, when he held the Republican presidential candidate in contempt of court for social media posts that questioned the jury selection process and insulted his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who is expected to be a crucial witness.

Merchan said Tuesday that he might jail Trump if he continues to defy the gag order, saying the fines allowed by New York law -- $1,000 per violation -- might not be enough to serve as a deterrent for the wealthy businessman-turned-politician.

The gag order aims to prevent one of the world's most prominent people from intimidating witnesses, jurors and other participants in the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president. It does not prevent Trump from criticizing prosecutors or the judge himself.

Trump says the gag order restricts his free-speech rights and prevents him from responding to political attacks. On Tuesday, he repeated his claim that prosecutors are working with Democratic President Joe Biden to undercut his bid to win back the White House. He also repeated his claim that Merchan faces a conflict of interest because his daughter has done work for Democratic politicians.

Trump is accused of falsifying business records to hide a hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 presidential election. Lawyer Keith Davidson testified on Tuesday that Daniels had been shopping her story of a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump to media outlets at a time when Trump was already facing damaging accusations of sexual misbehavior.

Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump attends a campaign event in Waukesha, Wisconsin, U.S. May 1, 2024. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo

Trump has pleaded not guilty and says he did not have sex with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

Before testimony resumes on Thursday, Merchan will consider whether Trump violated the gag order on four separate occasions last week by referring to Cohen as a "liar" and former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, another witness, as a "nice guy" in statements to news media.

Prosecutors say Trump also violated the gag order by saying in a television interview that "that jury was picked so fast - 95% Democrats. The area's mostly all Democrat."

Trump faces three other criminal prosecutions, though it is not clear whether any of them will go to trial before the Nov. 5 presidential election. Two accuse him of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden, while another accuses him of mishandling classified documents after leaving office. He has pleaded not guilty in all three cases.

His legal troubles have come at a cost. Fundraising groups have diverted tens of millions of dollars from his presidential campaign to his legal fees, and he has had to post $266 million in bonds in order to appeal two civil judgments that found he engaged in business fraud and defamed writer E. Jean Carroll, who claimed he raped her in the 1990s.

(Reporting by Jack Queen, Jody Godoy and Andy Sullivan; Editing by Scott Malone and Jonathan Oatis)

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