(PatriotPostNews.com) – As the high-profile criminal hush money case continues for former president and leading GOP candidate Donald Trump, the presiding judge has found the defendant to be in criminal contempt.
New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan has formally held Trump in contempt over a violation of a gag order, committed through several Truth Social posts and messages put out on his campaign website. The judge also warned the defendant that if he continues to post or “repost” similar content, he could wind up in prison.
In his order, Merchan wrote that Trump did not deny having shared or reshared the content in question but did reject the accusations that he violated the gag order willingly. The judge subsequently threw out the defendant’s legal claims that he had not retweeted content in any particular endorsement of a violating argument.
Instead, Merchan found that Trump is in “criminal contempt” of the order “beyond a reasonable doubt.” Specifically, nine out of 10 posts in question that were brought up by the Manhattan district attorney’s office were in violation of the gag order, which prohibits the former president from talking about certain people involved in the case, including key witnesses whose testimony could be impacted.
Merchan further stated, in contradiction to Trump’s lawyers’ arguments, that “reposting” counts as the defendant trying to tell the public that he “endorses and adopts” the content and shared statement “as his own.” The judge conceded to the fact that not all reposts are the same as endorsements, but still determined that the content was from Trump himself.
The trial was first brought to court in April 2023, when Trump was indicted by a federal grand jury. He is accused of having authorized hush money payments to be made to an adult film actress, Stormy Daniels, in an effort to keep their 2006 romantic fling secret ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
While hush money payouts are not illegal, the question at the center of the case is whether Trump was actively involved in the payments, which his former lawyer Michael Cohen has already admitted to having made to Daniels with the motivation of keeping the story quiet so as not to negatively impact the election.
Trump is facing 34 counts related to falsifying business documents to keep this information secret. He is the first former president to stand trial in criminal court.
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