It’s Day 5 of the actual trial! Day 9, if you include jury selection.
Best sources of live blogging that I have found.
Mark Sumner at Daily Kos – Live Blogging
Anna Bower at Lawfare – Live Blogging on Twitter (checking for twitter live blogging)
Josh Kovensky at TPM – Live Blogging (no live blogging today)
Judge holds Trump in Contempt, threatens Jail (TPM)
New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan threatened to incarcerate Donald Trump on Tuesday if he continues to flout a gag order imposed to block him and others from attacking witnesses in his criminal case.
Merchan said in an order released Tuesday morning that if Trump continued to violate the judge’s orders, he would “impose incarceratory punishment.”
The threat came as Merchan held Trump in contempt of court, fining him $1,000 per statement for nine social media posts that attacked witnesses in the case.
Merchan made a point in the contempt order of leaving open the possibility that he could send Trump to jail for continuing to violate the order. New York state law limits him to fineing Trump $1,000 per violation; Merchan wrote that such a small monetary amount “will not achieve the desired result in those instances where the contemnor can easily afford such a fine.”
He added that while he would prefer to impose a fine “commensurate with the wealth” of the offender, he lacked that power and would “therefore consider whether in some instances, jail may be a necessary punishment.”
Merchan, so far, is only threatening to incarcerate the former and potentially future President. Trump has brazenly flouted the judge’s order over the past several weeks, including in a manner intended to strike directly at the judge. Trump frequently posted about Merchan’s daughter, a fact that Manhattan DA prosecutors drew to Merchan’s attention during a contempt hearing last week.
TRANSCRIPTS OF NY CASES AVAILABLE THE NEXT DAY Link
Emotional support pup and kitty for the occasion.
I’m still interested in the trial, so I’ll put this up again today, but think of it as a general open thread, too.