"Make no mistake: future violations, whether intentional or unintentional, will subject the violator to far more severe sanctions,” wrote the judge
Former President Donald Trump received a $5,000 fine on Friday for violating the gag order put in place by Judge Arthur Engoron to protect his staff and his courtroom’s proceedings.
It doesn't mean every fine will be $5k, it's a warning. The judge is saying it's a serious gag order with consequences, $5k is probably the average fine for first violations.
There was an open question about what the judge could do about violations of the gag order, it's just impossible that an ex President goes to jail for violations of a gag order...I'd argue he's not going regardless, but 100% not going for this. So we have an answer, there will be fines.
It's symbolic at this point. That number will go up and eventually jail will come into the picture. We know that Trump can't help himself, so this is going to escalate pretty quickly in front of us.
5k? What a loser, that Judge should throw it up to 200k and state if it happens again it will include jail time. Why does everyone walk on eggshells with these idiots, I don't care who it is, fine them and jail them
Unfortunately Trump's best and only defense right now is that this is all a deep state witch hunt and he's being treated unfairly by the justice system. The way to not let that defense gain any traction is to make it painfully obvious to any observer that they are handling Trump as a defendant with kid gloves.
I cannot fathom how people don't get this. Look, if I told you what I would do to every human being that planned and participated on 01/06, I would get perma banned. I got more PTSD from that day than from literally having my ass kicked and robbed on Christmas Eve. I'm more than a leetle mad.
But we gotta handle this very damned carefully. Yes, that means being more than fair to Trump. We're going for the slam dunk conviction of the century, arguably the last two centuries.
I want this man in a concrete and steel box, with zero wiggle room to whine about unfairness.
That's the problem right there: Trumpers aren't "observing" any of this, they're just absorbing what (little) the right-wing media are saying about all of this. And the right-wing media will say it's a witch hunt regardless of what's actually going on. Worrying about what the right-wing media are going to say about anything is a losing game.
Engoron told the former president and his attorneys in court Friday that he wanted to "make clear that Mr. Trump is responsible for the large machine, even if it is a large machine," reported CNBC. However, in his written motion, the judge said that a fine of $5,000—a small financial burden for Trump—was reasonable given that it was a "first time violation."
"Make no mistake," Engoron added, "Future violations, whether intentional or unintentional will subject the violator to far more severe sanctions, which may include, but are not limited to, steeper financial penalties, holding Donald Trump in contempt of court, and possibly imprisoning him pursuant to New York Judiciary Law."
Giving this fucker a warning at this stage is absolutely ridiculous. He's done so much damage and just continues to get treated like some special snowflake.