Prosecutors want Trump held for contempt for violating the gag order by attacking witnesses Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen.
CNN’s Paula Reid said:
It is certainly no surprise that Trump would violate the gag order. We’ve seen him do it before, but the challenge for the judge is: what do you do now? We are less than half a day into jury selection at the beginning of a five- to six-week trial period. How do you keep Trump within the bounds of his gag order without making him a martyr or disrupting this case? So the prosecutors here said they would try to have Trump held in contempt for his comments that he was referring to. They claim he referred to Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen, two key witnesses in the case, as sleazeballs.
And there were two examples right now that we just heard in the last 15 minutes where social media potentially got Trump in trouble. One accuser claims they want to bring in tweets that made it appear Trump was pressuring Michael Cohen not to flip. And then of course these more recent social media posts in which he appears to be attacking witnesses in blatant violation of his gag order.
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Video:
Prosecutors seek to hold Trump in contempt: “The prosecutors here said they would try to hold Trump in contempt for his comments that he referenced. They claim he referred to Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen, two key witnesses in this case, as sleazeball.” pic.twitter.com/mwSNGAJZey
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) April 15, 2024
Obviously Trump is in contempt. The key for Judge Merchan is how to punish Trump without giving him what he wants: more ammunition to claim the trial is a political exercise? What worked in the civil fraud trial was hitting Trump in the pocketbook. If the judge in the criminal case is going to impose large fines on Trump, recent history has shown that he will quickly keep his mouth shut.
Doing nothing is not an option. Trump is testing the court, and the court must respond forcefully or the ex-president will derail the process.
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Jason is the editor-in-chief. He is also a White House press pool and congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a bachelor’s degree in political science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
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Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the American Political Science Association