Judge Juan Merchan today held former President Donald Trump in contempt for repeatedly violating a gag order that prohibits him from making comments about witnesses who are testifying against him in his criminal trial in Manhattan.
Trump is in court facing 34 felony counts for allegedly falsifying business records to cover up payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 presidential election. In total, Trump was fined $9,000 for violating the gag order.
“The Court finds Defendant in criminal contempt for willfully disobeying a lawful mandate of this Court … on nine separate occasions,” Judge Merchan wrote in his ruling.
Harvard Law-trained attorney and New York Times best-selling writer Jeffrey Toobin responded: “To put it another way, after Judge Merchan’s ruling, Donald Trump is now a convicted criminal.”
To put it another way, after Judge Merchan’s ruling, Donald Trump is now a convicted criminal.
— Jeffrey Toobin (@JeffreyToobin) April 30, 2024
Prior to becoming a full-time writer for The New Yorker and later becoming a legal analyst for CNN, fresh out of Harvard Law, Toobin served as a associate counsel for Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh during the Iran-Contra affair and Lt. Col. Oliver North’s criminal trial over obstruction of justice and diversion of funds.
Note: North, a National Security Council staff member who was indicted in 1988 on 16 felony counts, testified that he plotted to divert proceeds from the illegal sale of weapons to Iran to support Contra rebel groups in Nicaragua. North was granted limited immunity from prosecution in exchange for testifying before Congress about the scheme. Toobin wrote the book Opening Arguments: A Young Lawyer’s First Case: United States v. Oliver North.
New York criminal defense attorney Ed Palermo’s website describes the state’s two levels of criminal contempt below, noting there are “various degrees of criminal contempt, with escalating responses based on the severity of the offense.”
First-degree criminal contempt is the most serious, being a class E felony, and may result in up to 4 years in prison and additional fines and surcharges. It often involves actions such as threatening or causing bodily harm to a person protected by a court order or disobeying a stay-away order.
Second-degree criminal contempt may include actions like violating protective orders or restraining orders. This offense is a class A misdemeanor, the conviction of which can lead to a maximum prison sentence of up to one year in jail and/or 18 months in probation and fines.