Judge Juan Merchan has found Trump in contempt for violating the gag order during the ongoing trial. Trump has been fined nine times for breaching the order.
As per the ruling, Trump is required to delete seven posts from Truth Social and two from his campaign website by 2:15 p.m. today. The judge emphasized that further willful violations will not be tolerated and could result in incarceration.
According to the ruling, “THEREFORE, 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.”
In the recent hearing addressing the gag order violations, Trump’s defense put forward two main arguments: first, that reposting others’ content doesn’t breach the order, and second, that his posts constituted protected political speech in response to criticism.
However, Judge Merchan dismissed both arguments in his contempt ruling. He determined that reposts effectively endorse the content and that Trump’s criticism of key witnesses went beyond permissible responses to political attacks, violating the gag order.
“To allow such attacks upon protected witnesses with blanket assertions that they are all responses to ‘political attacks’ would be an exception that swallowed the rule. The Expanded Order does not contain such an exception,” he wrote.
