Former President Donald Trump found in contempt, fined $9,000 for violating gag order

Former President Donald Trump was held in contempt of court Tuesday and fined $9,000 for violating a gag order with a string of social media posts that criticized his former fixer and personal lawyer Michael Cohen, who is expected to be a key witness at Trump's ongoing criminal hush money trial.

Supreme Court Justice Juan M. Merchan, who announced his findings from the bench Tuesday morning, told Trump he would be jailed if he continued to violate the gag order, which restricts Trump from commenting publicly on any potential trial witnesses, court staff and jurors in his historic criminal trial.

“The people have met their burden on contempt,” Merchan said. And in his order, he wrote: “This Court rejects Defendant's arguments and finds that the People have established the elements of criminal contempt beyond a reasonable doubt as to Exhibits 2-10.”

On Tuesday afternoon, Trump removed the offending posts, which were posted on his Truth Social site and included a comment about “liberal activists” trying to get on the jury deciding Trump's case, as ordered by the judge. Trump was also ordered to pay the fine by 5 p.m.

In his order, Merchan noted that the $1,000 fine per violation for a “contemner” of extreme wealth, like Trump, 77, may not be sufficient to deter further violations of the gag order. The judge said that because he does not have the discretion to impose a greater fine, he will consider incarcerating the former president for any future offenses.

“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,” Merchan warned.

Trump, the first president or ex-president to go on trial on criminal charges, appeared to abide by the gag order Tuesday afternoon, as he was silent when a reporter asked him if he would keep posting about Cohen.

The gag order ruling came just as the second week of testimony began in Trump's trial on charges that he paid hush money to an adult film star with whom he had an affair so that she wouldn't go public with the allegations and hurt his chances at winning the 2016 presidential election.

Also Tuesday, the attorney who represented both Stormy Daniels, the adult film star, and Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model, testified about brokering the hush money payments to his clients ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

Prosecutors have said Cohen, a Lawrence native, paid off Daniels after she allegedly had an affair with the former president to protect Trump's 2016 presidential election chances.

Trump was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records with respect to how the Daniels payment was recorded in business records maintained by The Trump Organization, the ex-president's Manhattan-based real estate company. Prosecutors said the payment was falsely claimed as “legal services.”

Prosecutors have also upgraded the misdemeanor charge of falsifying business records to a felony, claiming that Trump committed the crime in furtherance of another crime, an unspecified violation of election law.

Trump's attorneys have said the GOP's 2024 presumptive presidential nominee is innocent. Trump has called the trial a “scam” and a “witch hunt” and has claimed his Democratic opponent, President Joe Biden, is behind the prosecution.

Lawyer Keith Davidson, who took the stand Tuesday afternoon, testified about a series of text message exchanges between himself and then-National Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard. Davidson texted Howard on June 7, 2016: “I have a blockbuster Trump story.”

Davidson's declaration had Howard's tabloid news antennas activated, as he rattled off a series of questions to Davidson via text. “Did he cheat on Melania?” Howard asked. “Do you know if the affair was during his marriage to Melania?”

Davidson initially demurred: “I really cannot say yet, sorry.”

Davidson explained to the jury: “I was not prepared to discuss the details at that time.”

The National Enquirer was not initially interested in McDougal's story because she “lacked documentary evidence of the interaction,” Davidson testified.

So Davidson shopped the story to other outlets, including ABC News, which was interested, but required McDougal to make her claims on camera as part of any deal, according to Davidson.

“At the time, as is often the case with negotiations, I was trying to play two entities off each other … To create a sense of urgency, if you will,” said Davidson, who added that it was his “duty” to get the best possible deal for his client.

In June 2016, Davidson was drafted to help broker a deal with the Trump team, this time to negotiate the payoff to Daniels.

Once again, he played two media entities off each other to up the price for the porn star, he testified.

In a July 22, 2016, message to Howard, Davidson used a sexist phrase to describe producers at ABC News, writing: “Don’t forget about Cohen. Time is of the essence. The girl is being cornered by the estrogen mafia.”

Davidson described later in his testimony being exasperated by his dealings with Cohen, who he said dragged his feet when the time came to finalize the deal for the hush money payment to Daniels.

On Oct. 17, 2016 — some two weeks before Trump would be elected president — Davidson sent an email to Cohen, saying he was going to pull out of the deal if the $130,000 payment was not received because his previous requests had been “met by a barrage of excuses why the funds were not sent.” Davidson said he received 45% for representing Daniels on the deal.

Davidson said he thought Cohen, who he described as “highly excitable” and a “pants-on-fire guy,” was trying to play him.

“I thought he was trying to kick the can down the road until after the election,” said Davidson, referring to a time when the allegations from Daniels would have had less negative impact on Trump.

He also felt Trump, who portrayed himself as a billionaire, wasn't as rich as he said and didn't like spending his money.

“Mr. Trump is frugal,” said Davidson. “That they had this deal on a silver platter. It was there for the taking and it didn’t happen because it didn’t fund and it didn’t fund because they didn’t want to spend the money.”

In a text exchange with Howard discussing how the deal blew up, Howard wrote: “I reckon that Trump impersonator I hired has more cash.”

Davidson explained to the jury that he took that to mean that “Trump wasn’t as wealthy as he stated.”

Trump was accompanied in court Tuesday by a member of his family — second son Eric Trump, who sat with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton — for the first time during his criminal trial.

“I'm going to sit in a freezing cold ice box for 8 hours, 9 hours or so,” Trump complained Tuesday morning before the proceedings began. “They took me off the campaign trail. But the good news is my poll numbers are the highest they’ve ever been. So at least we're getting the word out. And everybody knows this trial is a scam.”

Banker Gary Farro, who testified that he helped Cohen set up two bank accounts in 2016 at First Republic Bank for separate limited liability companies, which were later used to pay Daniels, wrapped up his testimony Tuesday.

Prosecutors have said Cohen set up the accounts to these shell companies to launder the hush money payments to Daniels.

Also on the stand Tuesday was Robert Browning, executive director of the C-SPAN archives, and Phillip Thompson, an executive at a stenography deposition firm, who were both called to authenticate evidence, including a video deposition from a federal defamation lawsuit against Trump and a video from a Trump campaign rally, during which Trump denied knowing Daniels or McDougal.

Typically, prosecutors and defense attorneys stipulate to the authenticity of video or transcript evidence, allowing it to be entered into evidence for consideration of the jury without having a witness testify. But Trump's attorneys have apparently taken an aggressive stance, therefore forcing the prosecution to bring ancillary witnesses to the stand in order to conform to the rules of evidence.

Trump got some good news Tuesday: Merchan ruled that his trial will pause on May 17, so that Trump can attend his youngest son Barron's high school graduation.