Donald Trump

[SkyBlueFlux]

Who else thinks that Trump will be jailed for contempt of court within the next 30 days?


Juan Merchan Merchan has had enough. After issuing this warning to Trump, Merchan will be compelled to jail the former president should he - inevitably - violate the terms of his gag order.

The thing I took away from that is that the gag order is technically enforced as a civil agreement and not criminal. Why? Is that normal?

In the extreme case that you are undermining the court system and putting jurors at risk of harm, why can’t criminal penalties be imposed? Even if it’s just something like an out-of-court order in the form of a criminal caution, that would have a potentially serious impact on sentencing in some jurisdictions where first-time offenders get lesser sentences. It’s also kind of wild to me that incarceration can be a civil punishment but that’s a separate matter altogether.

I respect Justice Merchan, I think he’s doing a great job in an impossible situation. I am troubled by the double standard that leads him to say things like “I don’t want to jail a potential future president.” I know he’s trying to soften the potential for appeal, but nobody else would get such grace and it feels lacking in ethical consistency.

If you ask me Judges should never be thinking about avoiding appeals from a vexatious litigant. If they are and that alters their actions then something has gone wrong.

 

[BlueMoonAcrossThePond]

The thing I took away from that is that the gag order is technically enforced as a civil agreement and not criminal. Why? Is that normal?

I'm replying as a complete neophyte to the workings of the US law system... but I don't see that that gag order violations are part of - or are enforced similarly to - civil cases.

Even in criminal cases, fines without jail time are possible.

Whereas - isn't it true - I honestly don't know - that civil cases cannot result in jail time? Jail time reserved for criminal convictions?

 

[r.soleofsalford]

Just so.

Victimhood is part and parcel of the Trump playbook.

So is election denialism. We've seen this time and again. How it works is as follows:
1) When questioned about whether or not he'll accept the results of an election, Trump will invariably site fake "evidence" of past voter fraud, and then will equivocate;
2) Next, Trump will be pressed - "Will you accept the results of the upcoming election?" Trump will reply, let's see - appealing to his base who don't believe in election outcomes, and at the same time creating ground for rebutting attacks against him as an election denier. Typical Trump.

I’m sure Trump has a Scouse family tree

 

[SkyBlueFlux]

Word on the street is that one Stephanie Clifford (a.k.a. Stormy Daniels) is going to be on the stand today...

Trump taking it characteristically well, in ways that walk the line of his gag order. He put a post on Social then deleted it 10 minutes later... coward.

 

[AliBobbyJ]

Who else thinks that Trump will be jailed for contempt of court within the next 30 days?


Juan Merchan Merchan has had enough. After issuing this warning to Trump, Merchan will be compelled to jail the former president should he - inevitably - violate the terms of his gag order.

I look forward to him going on hunger strike in protest and having to be force-fed (with Big Macs?) like the suffragettes.

 

[TinFoilHat]

Jailing Trump will cause "Secret service issues" apparently.

As in we'll know they've done an Epstein on him when he's found with his red tie hanging from his neck.

 

[Gareth Barry Conlon]

 

[SebastianBlue]

Word on the street is that one Stephanie Clifford (a.k.a. Stormy Daniels) is going to be on the stand today...

Trump taking it characteristically well, in ways that walk the line of his gag order. He put a post on Social then deleted it 10 minutes later... coward.

Posting it all, even if deleted, could still be a violation of the gag order, depending on the content.

 

[SebastianBlue]

Jailing Trump will cause "Secret service issues" apparently.

As in we'll know they've done an Epstein on him when he's found with his red tie hanging from his neck.

Looking forward to Trump complaining about the “two-tiered justice system” after the Secret Service steps in to say he can’t be jailed for intentionally violating the lawful gag order 150 times.

 

[SkyBlueFlux]

Posting it all, even if deleted, could still be a violation of the gag order, depending on the content.

I don't think it was a violation of the gag order. It didn't contain any details or comments about the witness, just saying that his team were given no notice because the judge is corrupt and it's a witch hunt. I think 'political statements' about the judge and the trial in general have been consistently overlooked as not covered by the order, it only explicitly protects witnesses and other court staff.

I think the reason his lawyers made him take it down is actually a bit more nuanced. The Prosecution had been withholding the order in which they were going to call witnesses (which is their right). This is something that the Defence is normally told as a common courtesy but the State declined to provide the order of witnesses because the Defence kept leaking things to the media. A few weeks ago they came up with a compromise which was basically "we'll give you 24 hours notice of the next witness, but if anything gets leaked we'll revoke that right."

Trump posting in the way he did made it obvious that the next witness was Daniels. The Prosecution would have no doubt taken that badly and revert to giving them zero notice. Which is ironically, the thing Trump was complaining about.