Former President Donald Trump arrives at Manhattan criminal court before his trial in New York on Thursday, May 2, 2024.Charly Triballeau/AP
Former president Donald Trump will likely face additional sanctions for violating the gag order in his criminal case in New York City after a brutal contempt hearing Thursday morning. He had already been fined $9,000 on Tuesday for nine violations.
Trump is facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records for his role in a 2016 scheme to cover up an alleged extra-marital affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels. (Trump denies any affair.)
Before the trial started, Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing Trump’s hush-money case, issued a gag order prohibiting Trump the former president from attacking or denigrating jurors, witnesses, court employees, prosecutors (or their families). The latest contempt hearing focused on four additional potential violations on top of the fine that has already been levied on Trump.
At Thursday’s hearing, prosecutors offered a quick argument that Trump had violated the gag order with statements he had made about his former attorney Michael Cohen—expected to be a key witness in the case against him. Cohen has said that he was the go-between in the hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
The prosecutors also said Trump was in........