Judge again holds Trump in contempt, threatens jail time
Judge Juan Merchan has found former President Trump violated the limited gag in the case for a 10th time and has held him in contempt.
"I find you in criminal contempt for the 10th time," Merchan said, determining that Trump violated the gag order when he made remarks about the case's jury on April 22 during an interview on Real America's Voice, after the trial had started.
Merchan said that the $1,000 dollar fines per violation "are not serving as a deterrent" and threatened to jail Trump moving forward.
"Mr. Trump, last thing I want to do is put you in jail, you are the former president of the United States, and possibly the next president as well," Merchan said, directly addressing Trump.
"At the end of the day I have a job to do," Merchan said.
"Defendant violated the order by making public statements about the jury and how it was selected," Merchan's ruling said. "In doing so, Defendant not only called into question the integrity, and therefore the legitimacy of these proceedings, but again raised the specter of fear for the safety of the jurors and of their loved ones.
"That jury was picked so fast -- 95% Democrats," Trump told Real America's Voice on April 22. "The area's mostly all Democrat. You think of it as a -- just a purely Democrat area. It's a very unfair situation, that I can tell you."
The ruling comes after Merchan earlier found Trump in contempt for nine previous violations of the trial's limited gag order, for which Trump paid $1,000 for each violation.
Merchan determined that prosecutors could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt the three other additional gag order violations they had sought, including remarks Trump made about former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker during his testimony.
Prosecutors had argued that Trump's remarks were a threatening message to other participants in the trial, but Merchan was not convinced by that argument.
