Donald Trump was held in criminal contempt by Justice Juan Merchan Tuesday morning for seven social media posts and two statements on Trump’s campaign website that violated a gag order imposed in his Manhattan criminal case. The judge ordered Trump to pay a $9,000 fine — $1,000 for each violation. And he warned Trump that additional violations could land him in jail. “Defendant is hereby warned that the Court will not tolerate willful violations of its lawful orders and that if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, it will impose an incarceratory punishment,” the judge wrote in an eight-page decision. Before the hush money trial began in mid-April, the judge issued a gag order that bars Trump from publicly commenting about likely witnesses, jurors and other people involved in the case. Prosecutors accused Trump of repeatedly violating the gag in the days leading up to the trial and during the trial itself. Trump posted social media messages attacking people including Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels, who are expected to be key witnesses for the prosecution. For instance, on April 13, Trump wrote on his social media site, Truth Social: “Has disgraced attorney and felon Michael Cohen been prosecuted for LYING?” On April 17, during jury selection, Trump claimed to be quoting a Fox News host and wrote on Truth Social: “They are catching undercover Liberal Activists lying to the Judge in order to get on the Trump Jury.” 2024-04-19 Trump: 'The gag order has to come off' (1295934)Prosecutors sought to hold Trump in contempt for 14 alleged violations of the gag order. Though they didn’t seek jail time, they told the judge during a contempt hearing last week that Trump appeared to be “angling” for such a punishment. During that hearing, Merchan grilled Trump lawyer Todd Blanche on the former president’s public comments. On Tuesday, Merchan ruled on 10 of the 14 statements that prosecutors identified. The judge found that nine of them ran afoul of the gag order. Another contempt hearing on the remaining four alleged violations is set for Thursday. “Defendant violated the Order by making social media posts about known witnesses pertaining to their participation in this criminal proceeding and by making public statements about jurors in this criminal proceeding,” Merchan wrote. Though Trump’s lawyers had argued that several of the posts in question were “reposts” of remarks made by other people, and therefore shouldn’t be considered Trump’s own commentary, Merchan rejected that argument, finding that “a repost, with or without commentary by the Defendant, is in fact a statement of the Defendant.” “Defendant curated the posts at issue and then took the necessary steps to publish the posts on his Truth Social account and on his campaign website,” Merchan wrote. “In doing so, he endorsed the posts with one purpose in mind — to maximize viewership and to communicate his stamp of approval.” Trump’s lawyers had also defended his statements by saying they came in response to “political attacks.” When Merchan issued the current version of the gag order on April 1, he wrote that the limitations on Trump’s speech were “narrowly tailored” and would not prevent Trump from “responding to alleged political attacks.” But on Tuesday, Merchan wrote that the nine violations he found didn’t fall into that category. “Merely characterizing every one of Defendant's postings as a response to a ‘political attack’ does not make them so,” the judge wrote. One post identified by prosecutors, however, arguably counts as a response to a political attack, the judge found. In that post, Trump called Cohen and Daniels “two sleaze bags who have, with their lies and misrepresentations, cost our Country dearly!” Merchan found that the post had a “tenuous” connection to prior statements that Cohen made attacking Trump, so the judge ruled that it did not violate the gag order. Merchan also noted that Trump’s candidacy for president warrants special consideration of his First Amendment rights. “It is critically important that Defendant's legitimate free speech rights not be curtailed, that he be able to fully campaign for the office which he seeks and that he be able to respond and defend himself against political attacks,” he wrote. He warned that his gag order “not be used as a sword instead of a shield by potential witnesses” and raised the prospect of amending the order if any potential witnesses took advantage of it. The purpose of the gag order, he wrote, “is to protect the integrity of these proceedings by shielding those fearful of reprisal by the Defendant so that they may take part in these proceedings without concern.” Under the New York criminal contempt law that prosecutors invoked, the maximum financial penalty for each violation of the gag order is $1,000 — arguably a meaningless sum for someone as wealthy as Trump. But the law also allows the judge to impose up to 30 days in jail for each violation. Merchan noted in his decision that the penalty “unfortunately will not achieve the desired result in those instances where the contemnor can easily afford such a fine,” adding that in such situations he “must therefore consider whether in some instances, jail may be a necessary punishment.” The judge also ordered that Trump remove the posts containing the gag order violations from his Truth Social account and his campaign website by 2:15 p.m. on Tuesday. Trump has repeatedly railed against the gag order since it was imposed, including last week when he spoke to reporters in the hallway outside the courtroom. “I'm not allowed to talk but people are allowed to talk about me. So they can talk about me, they can say whatever they want. They can lie,” Trump said. “I just have to sit back and look at why a conflicted judge has ordered me to have a gag order.”