Former President Donald Trump, in a post early Thursday before his trial in Manhattan was to resume, slammed trial Judge Juan Merchan over the gag order the judge fined him over earlier this week.
In his Truth Social post, Trump called Merchant "corrupt and highly conflicted" and accused him of interfering with the 2024 presidential election, reported Mediaite.
"We cannot let this radical left, corrupt and highly conflicted New York Democrat judge interfere with the presidential election of 2024 — the most important election in the history of our country," he said in the post, written in all-caps. "The USA is truly a nation in decline! Remove the unconstitutional gag order."
Tuesday, Merchan found Trump in contempt of court over repeated violations of a gag order the judge put in place and fined him $9,000.
The gag order does not prevent Trump from speaking out about the case, which involved business records in connection with payments made to former adult film actor Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.
It also does not prevent Trump from making attacks against Merchan but prohibits Trump from attacking jurors, court staff, witnesses, lawyers from the prosecution, and others who are connected with the case.
Merchan imposed the maximum fines possible, $1,000 per offense, and threatened he would throw Trump into jail if there were future violations. He also ordered Trump to remove seven offending posts from his Truth Social account and two others from his campaign website, and Trump complied.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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