At this point it really is a race to see which judge presiding over a Trump case will put him in the slammer for gag order violations first, and the judge in Trump's civil case is no longer playing around. Trump's going to have to come up with five grand.
Former President Donald Trump was fined $5,000 on Friday after his disparaging social media post about a key court staffer in his New York civil fraud trial lingered on his campaign website for weeks after the judge ordered it deleted.
Judge Arthur Engoron avoided holding Trump in contempt for now, but reserved the right to do so — and possibly even put the 2024 Republican front-runner in jail — if he again violates a limited gag order barring case participants from personal attacks on court staff.
Engoron said in a written ruling that he is “way beyond the ‘warning’ stage,” but that he was only fining Trump a nominal amount because this was a “first time violation” and Trump’s lawyers said the website’s retention of the post had been inadvertent.
“Make no mistake: future violations, whether intentional or unintentional, will subject the violator to far more severe sanctions, which may include steeper financial penalties, holding Donald Trump in contempt of court, and possibly imprisoning him,” Engoron wrote in a two-page order.
Again, Trump is daring a judge, any judge, to sanction him so he can scream that his trial is unfair, and influence his followers to take action, possibly precipitous and dangerous action. This is what he wants. He's going to fly through the air like a loutish orange Icarus until his wings melt, and when he crashes, he's going to try to blot out the sun.
But that has to be balanced against the real potential for violence. A Maryland judge was shot to death this week in his own driveway after awarding custody of the suspected gunman's children to the suspect's wife. We shoot judges in America, you see. Who would come gunning for Judge Engoron, or Judge Chutkin in Trump's January 6th case, if either one of them leveled real sanctions against Trump?
How many more warnings and chances will Trump end up getting in order to try to stave off a lethal response?
Can America survive that? Can America survive putting Trump in jail at all?
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