Judge holds Trump in contempt, fines him $9,000 and raises threat of jail in hush money trial

NEW YORK — Donald Trump was held in contempt of court Tuesday and fined $9,000 for repeatedly violating a gag order that barred him from making public statements about witnesses, jurors and some others connected to his New York hush money case. And if he does it again, the judge warned, he could be jailed.

Still, he warned, that the court would not tolerate"willful violations of its lawful orders and that if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, it will impose an incarceratory punishment.” Among those he found to be violations, Merchan ruled that a Trump post quoting Fox News host Jesse Watters’ claim that liberal activists were lying to infiltrate the jury “constitutes a clear violation” of the gag order. Merchan noted that the words contained within the quotation marks in Trump’s April 17 post misstated what Watters actually said.

Through detailed testimony on email exchanges, business transactions and bank accounts, prosecutors are forming the foundation of their argument that Trump is guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with the hush money payments. The prosecution is leading up to crucial testimony from Cohen himself, who went to federal prison after pleading guilty to campaign finance violations and other crimes. Trump has denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty.

Farro first took the stand Friday. While a senior managing director at First Republic Bank, he was assigned to work with Trump's lawyer for about three years, in part because of his “ability to handle individuals who may be a little challenging," Farro said, adding that he didn't find Cohen difficult.

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