Donald Trump was found to be in contempt of court on April 30th for violating his gag order, but what does this mean for the ex-president? Can we expect to see the orange fiend behind bars for the offense?
Currently Trump is in the middle of a battle on multiple fronts, and his big mouth and even bigger ego are not really helping him win over the judge. A gag order was put in place to prevent the businessman from talking publicly about the ongoing case; this was done to protect the identities of those in the jury, as well as staff in the court. Despite this, Trump has continued to post drivel on his Twitter knock-off: Truth Social. He was found to be guilty of breaching the gag order on multiple separate occasions.
Will Trump go to jail for repeatedly violating the gag order?
Once is bad enough, but to do it multiple times, surely you’d expect a pretty heavy punishment for that, right? Well, Trump was charged a fine of $1,000 for each offense meaning he had to pay a grand total of $9,000 for the violation. Not exactly breaking the bank for someone like him. On May 6th it was reported by CNN that Diaper Don had been found guilty of contempt of court a tenth time so clearly he’s not taking the gag order seriously.
Despite there being 10 separate instances of Trump violating the order he’s not currently under the threat of serving any jail time, although it’s not exactly off the table, either, as future cases could lead to imprisonment. Judge Juan Merchan is aware that the fines will do nothing to deter the man with the “beautiful blue eyes,” and so the threat of jail if he continues to transgress is (hopefully) a real one. According to CNN, Merchan stated that “going forward this court will have to consider a jail sanction.”
The idea of jail time for any more future violations is something that’s been thrown around a few times now, and it could be the only thing to successfully get the message through Donald’s thick skull. But realistically, could this happen? Well, according to an article from Rolling Stone, Trump’s lawyers already have a plan prepared for that eventuality — and no, it isn’t as simple as just telling Don to “shut up,” you know it’s not that easy. Anyways, their plan involves filing a writ of habeas corpus, essentially meaning the legality of imprisonment would be examined. They are confident they would win and besides, getting Trump in a cell would just be a logistical nightmare.
So even if the judge were to hand down a prison sentence for the multiple instances of contempt of court, it looks like Trump and his lawyers would weasel their way out of it. But then again, Judge Merchan seems pretty done with Donald’s BS so maybe they’re underestimating his determination to make him serve some time.
