He declined to levy
A tap on the knuckles for Trump:
Donald Trump has made his contempt for the court clear throughout his criminal trial in Manhattan, and now a judge has made it official. Juan Merchan ruled today that the former president had violated a gag order designed to protect the integrity of the trial and fined him $9,000.
Might as well fine him 25 cents. 9k is lunch money to him.
Merchan found that nine violations alleged by prosecutors were clear violations, but deemed a tenth too ambiguous to warrant punishment. He declined to levy the most serious punishment available to him—namely, tossing Trump in jail—but also had scathing words for Trump’s excuses for violating the order.
Would a less notorious defendant be tossed in jail? If so, is there any non-shameful reason not to toss Trump there?
This one is a speed bump. I suspect Trump is itching to appeal this finding on free speech and/or election interference grounds, and if/when he does so, it is important that the judgement be seen as reasonable. This absolutely is. Trump can now consider appealing, or pay and shut up. He won’t win an appeal, he might have in the case of being deprived of personal liberty.
Now, when he ignores the restriction again, the judge will have a clear basis for stating that no other sanction appears to have had the effect of compelling obedience of the order.
I don’t give a good goddamn how inconvenient throwing Trump’s ass in jail would be. Last time I checked, incarceration was pretty inconvenient for pretty much anyone. The issue is the survival of the Republic. Either we have rule of law, or we don’t. I do believe that the issues around Presidential immunity are complex and unique (Judgement against actions of state would be a slippery slope indeed) . But Trump isn’t president. He’s just John Gotti without the fashion sense. We’ve all known for a long time that there was a legal standard for the rich and powerful and another for everyone else. What we’d hoped was that there wasn’t a third – an absence of accountability for powerful bullies with a like-minded base. He already thinks he’s special. He needs to be reminded in the harshest terms that he isn’t. Otherwise there’s no point in talking about our legal system – it will have already failed for good.