Judge Fines, Threatens to Jail Trump for Violating Gag Order

Facts

• The judge overseeing Donald Trump's New York civil fraud trial fined the former president $5K and threatened 'serious sanctions' — including jail time — on Friday after Trump allegedly violated the gag order barring him from speaking about the court’s staff.¹
• The apparent violation consisted of Trump failing to remove a social media post about Judge Arthur Engoron's clerk.²
• Engoron issued the gag order on Oct. 3 after Trump first posted the social media post, which referred to the clerk as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's 'girlfriend.'³
• The post was removed from TruthSocial, where it was originally posted, but remained on Trump’s website for more than two weeks. It was deleted Thursday night after media coverage led to attorneys on both sides of the trial being notified about the post.⁴
• Trump's attorney, Christopher Kise, blamed Trump's “campaign machinery” for the post remaining on the website and told the judge that 'there was no intention to evade or circumvent or ignore the order.'²
• Trump also faces a partial gag order in the DC election interference case, with US District Judge Tanya Chutkan barring Trump from making negative comments about the prosecutors or potential witnesses.⁵

Sources: ¹Forbes, ²The Guardian, ³Reuters, ⁴CNBC and ⁵NBC.

Narratives

• Pro-Trump narrative, as provided by Daily Caller. Trump shouldn't be punished or imprisoned for violating this ridiculous gag order. The post in question was removed from Truth Social soon after the judge ordered it to be, and it was an unintentional mistake that it was left up on his campaign website. His campaign is a complex machine with many moving parts, and this just fell through the cracks. Even just the consideration of jail time is absurd.
• Anti-Trump narrative, as provided by NBC. The gag order was put in place because Trump was making incendiary and untrue statements about the court staff in this case, which could have led to dangerous physical harm. Even if leaving the post up was accidental, Trump is still ultimately responsible for what appears on his website. Trump is not above the law, and this serious violation of a gag order deserves sanctions.

Predictions