Former U.S. President Donald Trump has been ordered to comply with his gag order, given by Judge Juan Merchan, who cautioned he will give Trump jail time if he continues to violate the order by making comments about the witnesses and jurors in the trial.
Trump is on day 13 of the hush-money trial and faces 34 felony counts for falsifying records to conceal payments made to a porn star during his presidency. The threat of jail time came as Trump continued to violate his gag order. Before Merchan’s comment, the Judge had already fined Trump 10,000 dollars as he was found in criminal contempt.
“The last thing I want to do is put you in jail,” Merchan said. “You are the former president of the United States and possibly the next president, as well. There are many reasons why incarceration is truly a last resort for me.”
The Judge noted that, if he was forced to take that step it would be “disruptive to proceedings.”
In retaliation to Merchan’s threat, Trump waited until he exited the courtroom where he explained the gag order and proudly told reporters: “Frankly, our constitution is much more important than going to jail. It’s not even close. I’ll do that sacrifice any day.”
He then went on to criticize the case, saying “There is no case, any legal scholar would tell you they don’t have a case, this is just a political witch hunt and election interfering.”
Trump’s most recent violation occurred on April 22, when the former president publicly critiqued the speed at which the jury was selected. He also claimed that the jury was “all Democrat,” insinuating bias against him as a Republican.
The New York Times reported that the Secret Service is preparing for the possibility that Trump could be jailed.
The time that he could serve in jail is down to Judge Merchan and could be as short as one hour, former New York Federal Prosecutor Mitchell Epner told Axios.