New York prosecutors on Monday asked a judge at the start of Donald Trump's criminal bribery trial to fine him and remind him that he could go to jail for violating a gag order that prevents him from Interfering with potential witnesses.
Judge Juan Merchan set a hearing on the request for fines for April 24 and gave Trump's lawyers until next Friday to submit a written response.
The trial, the first for a former US president, stems from a 2016 bribe payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. With Trump seated at the defense table, prosecutors cited his years of criticizing witnesses, court staff and others.
Prosecutors asked the judge to fine Trump $1,000 for each of three social media posts made this month about Daniels and former Trump adviser and lawyer Michael Cohen.
“The defendant demonstrated his willingness to disregard the order. He attacked witnesses in the case and, in the past, he attacked jurors in the case,” said prosecutor Christopher Conroy.
Under Merchan's gag order, Trump is barred from making public statements about witnesses regarding their potential testimony and about prosecutors, court staff and their families if the statements are intended to interfere with the case.
Trump lawyer Todd Blanche said Trump did not violate the gag order because he was responding to witnesses' public statements.
“Both witnesses have been talking about their testimony in this case, about President Trump’s ongoing re-election, and in general they are constantly disparaging President Trump,” Blanche said.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, accused Trump of falsifying records to cover up a $130,000 payment made by his then-lawyer Michael Cohen to Daniels in the final days of the 2016 presidential campaign to buy her silence about a sexual encounter. in 2006 that she said she had with him.
Trump has denied any such relationship. Last year, he pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records in the case. A conviction would not prevent Trump from running for office or holding office.
“This is political persecution,” Trump, 77, said before entering the courtroom, accompanied by his lawyers and wearing his signature blue suit and red tie.
He is required to attend the trial, which is expected to last until May. Jury selection is expected to last about a week, followed by witness testimony.
Police stood guard in front of the courthouse amid a maze of barricades, and helicopters followed the procession of black SUVs that transported Trump from his Trump Tower apartment.
Falsifying business records in New York is a crime punishable by up to four years in prison, although many of those found guilty have been sentenced to fines or probation.
While the case is considered by some legal experts to be the least influential of the four criminal trials Trump faces, it is the only one that is guaranteed so far to go to trial before the Nov. 5 election. Additionally, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, half of independent voters and one in four Republicans say they would not vote for Trump if he were convicted of a crime.
Cohen testified that he made the payments to buy Daniels' silence before the 2016 election, in which Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton. In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance law, although the federal prosecutors who brought that case did not charge Trump.
Trump has called Cohen a “serial liar” and his lawyers are expected to attack his credibility at trial.
Trump has three other criminal cases mired in legal disputes. Two of the other cases concern his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat and one involves withholding confidential documents after leaving office in 2021.
Source: CNN Brasil
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