April 23 (UPI) — Prosecutors on Tuesday will try to convince the judge in Donald Trump‘s hush-money trial that the former president should be held in contempt for multiple alleged breaches of a gag order imposed on him in the case.
Lawyers for the State of New York claim Trump has “wilfully” breached the gag order barring him from making public statements attacking witnesses, jurors and additional parties related to the case, 10 times and want him fined $1,000 on each count.
“We think that it is important for the court to remind Mr. Trump that he is a criminal defendant, and like all criminal defendants, he is subject to court supervision and, in particular, this court’s obligation to preserve the integrity of the Criminal Justice System,” said prosecutor Christopher Conroy.
Judge Juan Merchan’s options, should he find Trump has violated the March 26 order, range from a stern rebuke to banning him from social media for the rest of the trial to a fine or up to 30 days behind bars.
Merchan issued his four-page gag order on grounds Trump had used his high-profile position to make “threatening, inflammatory, denigrating,” statements directed at “local and federal officials, court staff, prosecutors and staff assigned to the cases, and private individuals including grand jurors performing their civic duty.”
“Given that the eve of trial is upon us, it is without question that the imminency of the risk of harm is now paramount,” read the order that lead prosecutor Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had been pushing for since February.
Merchan subsequently clarified that it extended to family members, including his own, after Trump launched attacks on Merchan and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg whom he had called “an animal” — but significantly Merchan and Bragg are not themselves included.
The hearing will take place away from the jury before testimony resumes in the hush-money trial.
Trump’s trial on 34 counts of falsifying business records, allegedly to disguise a $130,000 hush-money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to cover up an affair that might negatively impact his prospects in the 2016 presidential election, kicked off Monday.
Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker is due to retake the stand with further details about an alleged “catch and kill” deal under which he was to buy off people with potentially negative stories about Trump to prevent the information becoming public.