In a new decision from Tuesday holding Donald Trump in contempt in his New York City criminal case on business records charges, presiding Judge Juan Merchan — known as a Justice in local legal parlance — warned defendant Trump that Merchan’s prepared to send him to jail.
Detention is a possibility in circumstances of contempt of court, and Merchan was ruling broadly against Trump specifically on alleged violations of a gag order imposed earlier by the judge. The order protects witnesses, jurors, and other individuals from potential attacks amid trial, and Trump’s named/invoked such persons in public commentary and social media posts. Approaching a line that it’s easy to see as among the most serious, Trump has even tried complaining about the jury selection/assembling process, implicating a group that was already put under formal protections blocking the release of their individual identities to the public.
“Defendant is hereby warned that the Court will not tolerate continued willful violations of its lawful orders and that if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, it will impose an incarceratory punishment,” the judge said on Tuesday.
There’s actually another hearing that’s set for later this very week on additional violations of the gag order alleged of Trump, though it’s unclear if that would be the kind of escalation that would spur Merchan to confront Trump more directly with detention. The hearing was already set in motion before this new decision on the earlier alleged violations.
The main trial proceedings, meanwhile, were continuing on Tuesday with additional testimony… and with additional reports of Trump, who is compelled to attend because the proceedings are specifically criminal in nature, seemingly dozing off in court. And for evidently the first time, a member of Trump’s immediate family showed up Tuesday: Eric Trump, who is politically outspoken but whose actual responsibilities have largely gravitated around the family business rather than politics.
