The New York judge presiding over the hush money trial fined the former president on Tuesday for ignoring a gag order and warned that further violations could lead to prison time.
Judge Juan Merchan charged Trump, 77, with contempt of court for violating an order that he not publicly attack witnesses, jurors or court staff and their family members.
Merchan fined Trump $1,000 each for nine specific violations of the silence order, and ordered him to remove seven “offensive posts” from his Truth Social account and two from a campaign website by Tuesday afternoon.
The judge also warned the former president that he could be sent to prison if he continues to violate the gag order.
“Defendant is hereby warned that the Court will not tolerate continued willful violations of its lawful orders and will, if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, impose a term of imprisonment,” Merchan said.
The judge issued his order before testimony resumed in Trump's landmark trial on charges of falsifying company records to pay hush money to a porn star, Stormy Daniels.
Trump is the first former US president to face criminal charges, and his mandatory court appearance limits his time on the campaign trail, less than seven months before his likely election rematch with President Joe Biden.
The Republican is accused of falsifying business records to reimburse his then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, for the $130,000 funneled to Daniels just days before the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton.
Daniels, 45, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, threatened at the time to go public with her story about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, which could have derailed his White House campaign.
Trump denies having sex with Daniels and has used appearances outside the Manhattan courtroom to counter his charges, claiming it is a “witch hunt” mounted by Democrats to defeat his bid for the White House in November to torpedo recapture.
'Catch and kill'
Gary Farro, former senior director of the now-defunct First Republic Bank, took the witness stand Tuesday after briefly testifying Friday.
Cohen, Trump's “fixer,” opened an account with First Republic in the name of a company called Essential Consultants to arrange payment to Daniels.
Cohen, who has become an outspoken Trump critic, and Daniels are expected to be the prosecution's key witnesses at the trial.
The opening of the trial last week was dominated by testimony from a former tabloid publisher who said he suppressed potentially damaging stories about Trump.
David Pecker, 72, outlined a scheme known as “catch and kill,” in which he bought and then buried salacious stories that could have embarrassed the real estate mogul and damaged his campaign.
The former National Enquirer publisher told the court he paid $30,000 to kill a story by a Trump Tower doorman who made an apparently false claim that Trump had fathered a child out of wedlock.
He said $150,000 was paid to suppress a story by Karen McDougal, a Playboy model who claimed to have had a yearslong affair with Trump.
The case, which will be heard by 12 jurors and six alternates, is expected to last six to eight weeks.
In addition, Trump has been indicted in Washington and Georgia on charges of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
He is also accused in Florida of mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)