Judge threatens to lock up Trump

The judge in the so-called hush money case in New York against presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has fined the former president for repeatedlyviolating a gag order that bars him from publicly criticizing witnesses and jurors. Trump is probably unconcerned with the $9,000 penalty, but Judge Juan Merchan has also warned that further public attacks on people who are part of the case could land him in jail.

As part of his order, Merchan argues the threat of jail is necessary because even the largest fine he’s allowed to impose may “not achieve the desired result in those instances where the contemnor can easily afford such a fine.”

Readers can decide for themselves how likely Trump is to comply with this order as the trial continues and his frustration with sitting silently in the courtroom grows. But there’s now a genuine possibility that a judge will order a leading candidate to sit behind bars in the middle of his presidential campaign.

His first response to the fine was to issue a fundraising email with this message: “I was fined $9,000 for 9 gag order violations. THEY WANT TO SILENCE ME! They think they can BLEED ME DRY and SHUT ME UP, but I’ll NEVER stop fighting for YOU.” Trump has since removed the social media posts that violated the judge’s order, but he also posted a new message accusing Merchan of “RIGGING THE PRESIDENTIAL OF 2024 ELECTION. ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!!

Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying records to hide a $130,000 payment intended to buy the silence of an adult film star who claims the former president had sex with her.