For a defendant in a criminal trial to call several people involved in the case “disgusting” and accuse them of being “covert left-wing activists” who have sneaked into the jury by “lying” seems worthy of a reprimand. And, if the judge in the case has explicitly prohibited that defendant from talking about the case with anyone who is not part of his legal team, everything indicates that he is likely to face some sanction.
That is what happened this Tuesday to the former president of the United States Donald Trump. The judge who is directing the trial against him for the alleged violation of the regulation of electoral campaigns, Juan Merchan, has imposed 9,000 dollars (8,430 euros) for violating his prohibition on commenting on the process on nine occasions. Some comments that, given Trump’s verbal aggressiveness, have tended more like insult. Perhaps for that reason the judge did not accept the argument of Trump’s lawyers that the only thing the former president was doing with those statements, posted on his Truth social network, was “responding to a wave of political attacks.” Trump has subsequently deleted those nine messages.
The problem is that fining each violation of the gag order 940 euros (one thousand dollars) has absolutely no relevance with a person with a personal fortune of 5.1 billion dollars (4.8 billion euros). That’s something Merchan—who has seen his own daughter be the target of Trump’s wrath—has acknowledged.
Above, the court There is no way to collect the fine. -or the fines, because no one doubts that Trump is going to continue saying what he thinks-, so the nica opcin What remains, in theory, is send the former president to jail for contempt to Justice. Merchan left that option open, at least in theory, stating that he does not rule out being in a situation in which he “has to decide if, in some instances, prison could be a necessary punishment.” In fact, it seems almost impossible for the judge to dare to send the former president to the cell, if only because of the obvious risk that this would entail for the personal safety of Merchan, his family and several of the people involved in the trial, including the members of the jury.
Merchan, however, has granted the request of the former president of suspend the trial on May 17, so that the accused can attend the graduation ceremony of his youngest son, Barron, from High School. The magistrate had not made any decision on the matter until now because he feared that the trial would go slower than expected, something feasible taking into account Trump’s usually successful strategy of delaying judicial proceedings as much as possible. There is no doubt that Trump will use Barron’s graduation ceremony to make political statements.