Judge threatens Trump with jail time
NEW YORK – The 12th day of Donald Trump's New York hush money trial began with a threat.
Judge Juan Merchan told Trump that the $1,000 fines for gag order violations evidently aren't deterring the former president.
For future violations, Merchan said, he will have to consider jail.
The judge made the statement as he issued a ruling holding Trump in criminal contempt for a 10th violation of the gag order that bars him from commenting on jurors and witnesses.
Merchan said that the “magnitude” of such a decision “is not lost” on him, but that Trump's violations threatened to interfere with the fair administration of justice.
“There are many reasons why incarceration is truly a last resort,” the judge said. He worries about court officers and the Secret Service, as well as about the “broader implications.”
However, as much as he doesn't want to impose a “jail sanction,” Merchan told Trump directly that he “will if necessary and appropriate.”
Last week, the judge found Trump violated the order nine times, including a series of social media posts. A court spokesperson confirmed to USA TODAY Friday that the $9,000 for those violations has been paid.
This new violation is based on the presumptive GOP presidential nominee's comments about the jury during a phone interview with a TV program called “Just the News, No Noise.”
According to a transcript the prosecution supplied to the court, Trump said during the call, “That jury was picked so fast – 95% Democrats. 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.”
Merchan said he couldn’t find beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump violated the gag order on three other occasions alleged by prosecutors. The judge said two of those alleged violations may be protected political speech, while a third may not have constituted a veiled threat against a witness.
It was a dramatic start to a new week of a trial that capped Friday with emotional testimony from Trump’s former close confidante, Hope Hicks. Hicks described her initial advice to the 2016 campaign – “Deny, deny, deny” – when a reporter first reached out for comment about the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape, in which Trump boasted that he grabbed women’s genitals.
Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Prosecutors allege he was covering up unlawfully interfering in the 2016 presidential election through a hush money payment from his fixer Michael Cohen to porn star Stormy Daniels, who says she had sex with Trump. The former president denies that claim and has pleaded not guilty.
For a second time Monday, Trump’s second son Eric attended the trial. He sat next to Alina Habba, Trump’s lawyer for his two recent civil trials.
Over the weekend, Trump attended the Formula One Miami Grand Prix in Florida with a host of celebrities. Before entering the courtroom, he talked about the news that Columbia University canceled its graduation ceremony because of pro-Palestinian protests against Israel. He blasted Merchan and ignored a question about whether he would testify.
Reporters in Miami asked Trump about the trial, but he said he couldn’t answer.
“I have to say I’ve got a gag order,” Trump said. “I can’t speak about it. Never happened before, ever.”
The prosecution then began questioning Jeffrey McConney, the former controller for the Trump Organization.
Though McConney left the Trump Organization in February 2023, the company is paying for his lawyer. McConney said he had not spoken with Trump since retiring.
Prosecutor Michael Colangelo took McConney through the nuts and bolts of paying Cohen after the hush money payment.
The questioning appeared to be an effort to support the prosecution’s allegation that Trump was sending checks to Cohen to reimburse him for the $130,000 hush money payment, and falsely labeled those checks as legal expense payments. During opening statements, Trump lawyer Todd Blanche denied the checks were reimbursements to Cohen for the hush money.
Asked what Cohen’s position was, McConney responded that Cohen would say he was a lawyer, drawing chuckles in the courtroom.
At some point, McConney said, he learned that Cohen needed to be reimbursed through a conversation with Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s former chief financial officer.
Colangelo showed a document labeled “ACCOUNT ACTIVITY” indicating that Cohen wired Daniels’ lawyer $130,000. Some handwritten notes were related to repaying Cohen, McConney said.
The prosecutor then displayed an email from Cohen with a typed-out invoice to Weisselberg. The email said: “Dear Allen, Pursuant to the retainer agreement, kindly remit payment for services rendered for the months of January and February, 2017.”
Asked whether he ever saw a retainer agreement, McConney replied, “I did not.”
It was a significant moment for the prosecutors’ efforts to prove that the payments were not genuine “legal expenses.”
Cohen continued to send monthly invoices for $35,000, totaling $420,000 for 2017. After the March bill, he emailed McConney nudging about the payment.
McConney responded, “Yes I’ll check status tomorrow. DJT needs to sign check.”
“DJT” was Donald Trump, who needed to OK the payment, McConney testified.
Contributing: Safid Deen, USA TODAY