- Prosecutors asked Judge Marchand to fine Trump $3,000 for three counts of violating the gag order for comments he made about potential witnesses.
- President Trump has argued that he has a First Amendment right to deny the charges and criticize the case against him.
Judge Juan Machan is scheduled to hear arguments Tuesday over whether to punish former President Donald Trump for allegedly violating a gag order by commenting on a scheduled witness in his hush-money trial in New York.
Prosecutors on April 15 issued a 3,000 fine against Trump for allegedly violating a gag order in the case by posting social media posts criticizing potential witnesses in the case, former lawyer Michael Cohen and porn actress Stormy Daniels. asked Mr. Marchand to impose a fine of $1.
By Thursday, prosecutors had counted seven more alleged violations. And on Monday, Trump again criticized Cohen in a speech to reporters in the hallway outside the courtroom.
President Trump said of Cohen: “He was exposed as a liar.” “That’s a complete lie.”
President Trump has previously been fined for violating gag orders.
Marchand has scheduled a hearing with prosecutors for Tuesday, asking that he be fined for insulting Trump. But Trump has asserted his First Amendment right to publicly criticize witnesses and others involved in the case against him, especially during his presidential campaign.
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If Marchan can fine Trump, Judge Arthur Engoron will pay a fine of 10,000 yen in Trump’s civil fraud trial, in which Engoron’s law clerk was falsely accused of having a romantic relationship with a prominent Democratic lawmaker. He will be fined $5,000. The fine is small for a billionaire, but if Marchand feels he has flagrantly and repeatedly violated this order, the penalty for contempt of court could ultimately come before the jury reaches a verdict on Trump’s case. could be extended to imprisonment.
President Trump promoted the drama in a fundraising email on Monday, declaring that hearings on gag orders and all-caps warnings would be “all hell breaks loose.” “At that moment, I could be in jail!” said a message from the Trump campaign and Republican National Committee.
Marchand initially ordered Trump not to comment on potential witnesses or court officials, similar to his orders in Trump’s civil fraud trial and federal election interference charges.
Marchand expanded his order after President Trump commented: judge’s daughter Marchand has argued that he should be removed from the case. Mr. Machan refused to withdraw.
President Trump slams Cohen and Stormy Daniels on social media
President Trump continues to criticize Cohen and Daniels, the two central figures in the case, on social media.
Mr. Cohen paid Mr. Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet before the 2016 election about his claims that he had a sexual relationship with Mr. Trump in 2006, when Mr. Daniels was married to Melania Trump. He testified that he paid it.
Mr. Trump has pleaded not guilty to falsifying business records to conceal reimbursements to Mr. Cohen. Mr. Trump has maintained that he was paying Mr. Cohen as a legal vassal and was unaware of the payment to Mr. Daniels, but Mr. Cohen maintains that he had no vassal.
Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty and was jailed on charges including campaign finance violations based on payments to Mr. Daniels. Trump has long called him a liar because he also pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about Trump’s real estate projects in Moscow. Ironically, that lie was told to protect Trump.
Trump attacks Cohen’s credibility
Outside the courtroom on Monday, President Trump said Cohen was “not a very good lawyer” and added: “The reason he got into trouble was none of my business. ”
Testifying at President Trump’s civil fraud trial last year, Cohen denied tax evasion despite pleading guilty. Cohen admitted to using fake legal citations generated by artificial intelligence to plead to his lawyers in an effort to get him released early.
“When are you going to look into all the lies Cohen told in his last trial?” Trump asked. “He was caught lying at his last trial.”
Prosecutors initially asked Marchand to fine Trump for three social media posts that he said could threaten to intimidate witnesses. An example of this was on April 13, when Trump asked Cohen if he had been charged with lying. The judge ruled that Cohen would not be punished. On April 10, President Trump called both Cohen and Daniels “scumbags.” A recent post called Cohen a serial perjurer.
