Law professor expects Trump to attack “up until the point where there’s a more serious repercussion.”
New York prosecutors said Thursday they are not seeking jail time “yet” for Trump’s repeated violations of his gag order in his hush money trial – but that doesn’t bar the judge from taking that step anyways.
“The fact that the prosecution doesn’t point to jail time doesn’t really matter to the judge,” Bennett Gershman, former New York prosecutor and law professor at Pace University, told Salon.
“This judge, he doesn’t play games,” Gershman said. “And if he sees that individuals are playing games with him, he’s going to come down strongly on them.”
Judge Juan Merchan fined Trump $9,000 on Tuesday for nine violations of his gag order and ordered him to take down social media posts about jurors and witnesses.
On Thursday, prosecutors argued for Trump to be hit with four more sanctions for violating the gag order.
The alleged violations stem from his comments made to reporters outside the courtroom and in other interviews and news conferences.
According to The New York Times, prosecutor Christopher Conroy told the judge Thursday that Trump’s “statements are corrosive to this proceeding and the fair administration of justice.”
Those statements, according to The Times, include:
Trump’s legal team again argued that Trump was merely responding to political attacks. Trump’s gag order does say it “in no way prevents Defendant from responding to alleged political attacks.”
According to The Times, Trump lawyer Todd Blanche pointed to Cohen’s litany of TikTok videos criticizing Trump. “This is not a man that needs protection from the gag order,” he said.
