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Trump is used to having constant access to his social media bullhorn to slam opponents and speak his mind. After he was banned from Twitter following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, Trump launched his own platform, where his posts wouldn’t be blocked or restricted. And he has long tried to distance himself from controversial messages he’s amplified to his millions of followers by insisting they’re “only retweets.”But he does have experience with gag orders, which were also imposed in his civil fraud trial. After he was found to have violated those orders, he paid more than $15,000 in fines.Tuesday’s ruling came at the start of the second week of testimony in the historic case, in which Manhattan prosecutors argue Trump and his associates took part in an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 presidential campaign by purchasing and then burying seamy stories. The payouts went to a doorman with a torrid yarn; former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who had accusations of an affair; and to porn performer Stormy Daniels, who alleged a sexual encounter with Trump. He has pleaded not guilty and says the stories are all fake.Trump was ordered to pay the gag-order fine by the close of business Friday and must remove seven offending posts from his Truth Social account and two from his campaign website by 2:15 p.m. EDT Tuesday. The judge is also weighing other alleged gag-order violations by Trump and will hear arguments Thursday. He also announced that he will halt the trial on May 17 to allow Trump to attend his son Barron’s high school graduation.Of the 10 posts, the one Merchan ruled was not a violation came on April 10, a post referring to witnesses Michael Cohen and Daniels as “sleaze bags.” Merchan said Trump’s contention that he was responding to previous posts by Cohen “is sufficient to give” him pause on whether the post was a violation.Among those he found to be violations, Merchan ruled that a Trump post quoting Fox News host Jesse Watters’ 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.Merchan cautioned that the gag order “not be used as a sword instead of a shield by potential witnesses” and that if people who are protected by the order, like Cohen, continue to attack Trump, “it becomes apparent” they don’t need the gag order’s protection.Cohen, Trump’s former attorney, has said he will refrain from commenting about Trump until after he testifies at the trial. On Tuesday, he said in a text message to The Associated Press: “The imposed fine is irrelevant. Judge Merchan’s decision elucidates that this behaviour will not be tolerated and that no one is above the law.”In other developments, testimony resumed Tuesday with Gary Farro, a banker who helped Cohen open accounts, including one that Cohen used to buy Daniels’ silence. She alleged a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump, which he denies.Jurors also began hearing from Keith Davidson, a lawyer who represented McDougal and Daniels in their negotiations with the National Enquirer and Cohen. He testified that he arranged a meeting at his Los Angeles office to see whether the National Enquirer’s parent company was interested in McDougal’s story. But Dylan Howard, the Enquirer’s then editor in chief, told him the tabloid wasn’t keen on the idea because she “lacked documentary evidence of the interaction,” Davidson testified.A month after their initial lunch meeting, Howard reached out again to Davidson, suggesting they should resume discussions about the story. At the time, Davidson warned that American Media Inc., the Enquirer’s parent company, would need to move quickly.Davidson testified that McDougal was “teetering” at the time he sent the message and was on the verge of signing a deal to tell her story to ABC News.Davidson said that he was playing the Enquirer and ABC News against each other to get the best deal for McDougal. The ex-Playboy model didn’t want to tell her story publicly, which would’ve been required if she went to ABC, he said.The tabloid eventually bought the story.Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with the hush money payments. The detailed evidence on business transactions and bank accounts is setting the stage for testimony from Cohen, who went to federal prison after pleading guilty in 2018 to campaign finance violations and other crimes.Last week, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker laid out how he agreed to serve as the Trump campaign’s “eyes and ears” by helping to squelch unflattering rumours and claims about Trump and women. Pecker described how he paid $180,000 to scoop up and sit on stories.Trump’s attorneys have suggested that he was engaged in an effort to protect his name and his family—not to influence the outcome of the presidential election.The trial—the first of Trump’s four criminal cases to come before a jury—is expected to last for another month or more. And with every moment Trump is in court, he’s growing increasingly frustrated while the November election moves ever closer.For his part, Trump has been campaigning in his off-hours, but he is required to be in court when it is in session, four days a week. Outside the courtroom on Tuesday, he again criticised the case.”This is a case that should have never been brought,” he said.
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Judge holds ex-US President Trump in contempt, raises threat of jail and fines him $9,000
