Judge Merchan just set a gag order violation trap for Donald Trump – now watch Trump walk right into it
Judge Merchan hit Donald Trump with a $9,000 fine today for his first nine gag order violations, and also warned Trump that additional violations could include a jail sentence. There’s been a lot of disappointment over this on social media. But two things are being missed entirely.
First of all, this is exactly what prosecutor Alvin Bragg asked the judge to do – exactly – even right down to the dollar amount. Why? Under New York law, a judge can only do two things for gag order violations. One is to issue a thousand dollar fine per violation. The other is to toss the defendant in jail. But if a judge locks up a defendant too soon, without enough warning, the appeals court will likely overrule it.
So this is all that the judge could do to Trump, and it’s why it’s all that Bragg asked the judge to do to Trump. But this is just the beginning, you see, because the judge did in fact warn Trump today that additional gag order violations can land him in jail – and Trump has another gag order violation hearing in just 48 hours.
Thursday’s followup gag order hearing is intended to cover the gag order violations that Trump committed after Bragg’s filing but before Merchan’s hearing. You can expect Trump to likely be fined again for these violations, because they occurred before the judge threatened Trump with prison.
But this has all served to hand Trump a heaping of proverbial rope. If Trump now turns right around and commits more gag order violations – and his deteriorating psychological condition suggests he will – then it’ll make it very easy for the judge to throw Trump in jail and not be overturned by the appeals court.
So yes, it looks like the judge has indeed set a trap for Trump to walk through. Not a malicious trap, or a secret trap, or anything like that. Rather, it’s simply a trap which invites Trump to keep committing gag order violations if he really wants to, so that the judge can indeed lock him up and have it stand up on appeal. Remember, Trump always has the option to simply stop committing gag order violations, so none of this is unfair to Trump. But he’s likely going to keep blowing it.
Also, while we’re going to see endless cries of “special treatment” and “he’s getting away with it all” over today’s gag order ruling, this is exactly how any other defendant in New York criminal court would be treated. State law makes that clear. It’s why Alvin Bragg didn’t ask for anything different than what the judge handed down today. And Trump’s Thursday gag order hearing may also result simply in small fines. But the stage is now firmly set for Trump’s next gag order hearing after that to result in Trump being locked up. We’re looking forward to it.
