We’ve seen politicians go to jail. We’ve seen a vice president of the United States — Spiro Agnew — resign to avoid any chance of going to jail. We have seen President Richard Nixon pardoned in order to keep him out of jail.
What we have never seen is a former president of the United States in jail. But now that is a real possibility, because Donald Trump can’t shut up and abide by a simple gag order.
Justice Juan Merchan has repeatedly tried to enforce his gag order with fines. Trump pays the fines and keeps violating the gag order.
Merchan, who is overseeing Trump’s New York trial on charges of election interference through the use of hush money, has said he has no interest in making history by putting Trump behind bars.
“Mr. Trump, it is important to understand the last thing I want to do is put you in jail,” Merchan said last week. “You are the former president of the United States and possibly the next one as well.”
“The magnitude of that decision is not lost on me. But at the end of the day, I have a job to do,” he said, “and that job is to protect the dignity of the judicial system." He added: "If necessary and appropriate under the circumstance, [the court] will impose punishment,” by which he meant jail.
The judge’s job is to protect witnesses and jurors from........