New York Justice Juan Merchan announced he will hear arguments next week on prosecutors’ arguments that former President Donald Trump should face punishment for allegedly violating the gag order in the hush money trial.
Hours into the start of the first criminal trial against a former president, prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office called on Merchan to sanction Trump for violating the gag order by sharing at least three social media posts over the weekend. After deciding not to rule immediately on the request, Merchan said he would hold a hearing on the matter on April 23 at 9:30 a.m. EST.
Assistant District Attorney Chris Conroy asked that Trump be fined $1,000 for each post and be reminded that he can be jailed if he continues to violate the gag order.
“The defendant is aware of the April 1 order. We know that from various posts he had made,” Conroy said.
Later in the proceedings, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked Trump’s counsel to argue why the former president shouldn’t be held in contempt for allegedly violating the judge’s gag order. Steinglass argued that Trump’s efforts would continue into the current trial, citing plans by the defense to attack the credibility of Bragg’s star witness, Michael Cohen.
Among the posts in question, prosecutors cited one from Wednesday in which Trump references “two sleazebags,” who, in the context, are Cohen and Stormy Daniels.
Steinglass added that the witnesses in this case “have incurred the wrath of Trump supporters,” adding that Trump “skillfully, obsessively” puts out posts attacking his opponents both in the political sphere and in court.
Merchan’s decision to set the hearing over prosecutors’ motion to sanction Trump came after a lunch recess and before the start of jury screening, which on Monday afternoon focused on 96 potential juries. The total pool for potential jurors is said to be approximately 500 people.
While jury selection may continue into next week, the judge said that once the panel is finalized, he will be handed two lists: one containing the jurors’ numbers, and the other containing their names and numbers.
Merchan said he will then give one copy of each list to the prosecution and one copy of each list to Trump’s defense lawyers.
The lists are “not to be photographed or duplicated, in any way copied in any way shape or form,” Merchan told the court.
The core of the case features allegations of various alleged sex scandals that prosecutors say Trump attempted to conceal with the help of his former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen and ranking executives at the National Enquirer. Cohen paid $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels in the final days of the 2016 election to keep her silent about her allegations of an affair with Trump in 2006, which Trump denies ever happened.
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While paying hush money is itself not a crime, Bragg, an elected Democrat, is seeking to convict Trump on an allegation that he committed campaign finance violations when falsifying the details of the hush money transaction. Bragg is seeking to elevate the paperwork falsification, a misdemeanor on its own, to a felony crime.
Trump has made history as the first former or current U.S. president ever to face a criminal trial. He is facing this trial as the presumptive Republican nominee for president and has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts against him.
