Trump said Merchan had taken away his free speech rights. “I am the only Presidential Candidate in History to be GAGGED. This whole ‘Trial’ is RIGGED,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche has argued that the statements at issue were responses to political attacks, but Merchan noted that Blanche was unable to provide any evidence that the expected witnesses had attacked Trump before he insulted them.
The US$9,000 fine, due by Friday, is a relatively small penalty for Trump, who has already posted US$266.6 million in bonds as he appeals civil judgments in two other cases.
Imprisonment, however, would be an unprecedented twist in the first criminal trial of a former US president.
If that happened, it is unclear whether Trump would be sent to New York City’s jail on Rikers Island or whether security concerns would require more lenient treatment, such as home confinement in his Trump Tower triplex. As a former president, he remains under Secret Service protection.
Trump, the Republican candidate in the 2024 presidential election is charged with falsifying business records to conceal a US$130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence about a sexual encounter she said she had with Trump in 2006.
Trump has pleaded not guilty and denied having sex with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
