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On Tuesday morning, the hush money trial judge, Juan Merchan, found President Donald J. Trump in contempt of court for violating the expansive gag order placed on him, stopping him from speaking freely in the middle of the 2024 presidential election campaign season.
According to the Associated Press, Merchan fined Trump $9,000 for nine alleged violations of the gag order. Prosecutors originally alleged ten violations.
Trump will not face jail time for these reported violations. However, Merchan warned that Trump could face “an incarceratory punishment” for future violations of the gag order, per CNBC.
The order prohibits Trump from “making or directing others to make public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses concerning their potential participation in the investigation or in this criminal proceeding,” and “public statements about any prospective juror or any juror,” according to CNBC.
President Trump has been outspoken about the gag order, which he believes is “unconstitutional.”
“We have a gag order, which to me is totally unconstitutional. I’m not allowed to talk, but people are allowed to talk about me. So, they can talk about me,” Trump said after court last week, according to Fox News. “They can say whatever they want, they can lie, but I’m not allowed to say anything. I just have to sit back and look at why a conflicted judge has ordered me to have [a] gag order,” said the 45th president.