Donald Trump was held in contempt of court Tuesday and fined $9,000 US for repeatedly violating a gag order that barred him from making public statements about witnesses, jurors and some others connected to his New York hush money case.
If he does it again, the judge warned, he could be jailed.
Prosecutors had alleged 10 violations, but New York Judge Juan M. Merchan found there were nine. The ruling was a stinging rebuke for the former president and presumptive 2024 Republican nominee, who had insisted he was exercising his free speech rights.
Merchan wrote that Trump "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."
Among those he found to be violations, Merchan ruled that a Trump post quoting Fox News host Jesse Watters's claim that liberal activists were lying to infiltrate the jury "constitutes a clear violation" of the gag order. Merchan noted that the words contained within the quotation marks in Trump's April 17 post misstated what Watters actually said.