They can only fine $1000 per violation, so that’s basically useless for stopping trump. Hopefully they’ll escalate to jail time.
Maybe the Judge will actually do something useful once Trump’s stochastic terrorism actually, inevitably, leads to an act of violence.
But probably not.
Everyone complaining about the judges leniency… consider that getting locked up would be absolute gold for trumps campaign. Infinite money as well as great exposure.
Yeas it works be great to see him behind bars, but I’d prefer to play the long game.
That is irrelevant. If Trump’s behavior would cause a regular schlub to be jailed, then he should be jailed, full stop. That’s how the law is supposed to work.
I’m sorry but you’re gravely mistaken.
A judges whole job is to interpret the law and to apply appropriate penalties given the circumstances.
In some cases crimes have prescribed penalties - “exceeding the speed limit by 5mph” probably has a prescribed penalty.
In other cases the judge must weight the circumstances and determine what penalty is appropriate.
In this case, trump is antagonising the judge because it keeps his base engaged, and keeps campaign donations flowing in. Trump wants to go to jail because it would ignite his base. Why would a judge feel that penalty is appropriate? May as well give him a blow job.
More to the point, the primary objective of any punishment in this case would be to cause Trump to desist. If putting him in jail is not going to do that, but rather give his contemptuous remarks a far greater reach, then why indeed put him in jail?
Honestly, the best course of action for the judge and the correct “punishment” for Trump is to give his various utterances the least oxygen possible while preserving the authority of the court.
Name one famous example of a charismatic coup-attempting fascist getting locked up and rallying their supporters behind a manifesto referring to “their struggle”.
Ooh ooh I know this one! The answer is Hitler!
I would wonder then what would be a better alternative? Like if he’s going to milk being a martyr then how can he be punished?
He just needs to go to jail for a real crime with a penalty of many years.
If you lock him up for a couple of days it just activates his base.
Wish more people understood this.
Even if he was locked up for a lengthy period of time, he can campaign from jail. There is precedent for this. He has to be locked up under specific circumstances to stop his campaign.
I could get away with ten contempt of court charges and not go to jail. /s
Nice. I got contempt of court once and spent the weekend in jail. No ifs ands or buts about it. Judge wouldn’t even let me hand my house keys to my partner. Lol
What a fucking joke.
The judge doesn’t want to give Trump’s team any ammunition for an appeal. I realize it’s absurd, but if he’s thrown in jail without significant warning then they’ll argue it biased the already liberal jury (cause NYC) against him too much.
(I am not a lawyer, that’s just my understanding.)
Hitler got a slap on the wrist because the judge was sympathetic. Same story here.
without significant warning
The judge doesn’t want to give Trump’s team any ammunition for an appeal.
It’s still treating Trump different than most. If it’s such a problem to put Trump in jail, why isn’t it for any random person?
It’s still treating Trump different than most.
Of course it is.
If it’s such a problem to put Trump in jail, why isn’t it for any random person?
Because he is a former president of the United States who is currently running for re-election. This situation is unique in American history. As much as we may dislike these facts, they are true. The judge is in uncharted waters here, and needs to be careful to avoid anything that can be construed as evidence of bias against the defendant. This trial will be under scrutiny for as long as we have a country.
It’s not fair that most defendants do not have the essentially limitless resources of the entire conservative political machine at their disposal to pay for their legal woes, but it is the reality of the situation.
I would make a terrible judge, because I don’t see how this is uncharted territory. Sure, it’s unprecedented, but that doesn’t mean we don’t know what to do.
Our entire government is made up of citizens, that was the whole point in fighting a war to get rid of an unjust monarchy, ruling from afar.
Trump is a citizen, if he broke the law he needs to go to jail. If he breaks the law during the trial, he should receive the same punishment as any other citizen would. Doing anything else just means we have a 2 tier justice system.
The fact that he has fucked up 10 times and is still a free man is ridiculous. All the judge has done is show trump that he can do whatever he wants and face no repercussions. If you did something 10 times, and then someone gets mad the 11th, you wouldn’t say “sorry my bad” you’d say “why are you mad, I do this all the time”
This country is a joke
The judge is in uncharted waters here, and needs to be careful to avoid anything that can be construed as evidence of bias against the defendant.
And in so doing, hold a bias for the asshole.
The judge is biased on the side of Justice. Getting the case thrown out out of principle wouldn’t help anyone but Trump.
That’s bullshit and you know it.
There are established rules and procedures. When you fudge them on one side, to avoid appearing biased to the other….
That is itself bias. against your “side of justice”.
This judge is afraid of Trump; and in his fear making a mockery of justice. You know it, I know it, and Trump knows it. Even the judge knows it.
Yeah so let’s treat him the same way as anyone else so he can use that as an excuse to stop the procedure against him, that will sure show him!
Of all the cases where people want the judge to treat the accused the same way they would be treated in order to prove a point, this is probably the worst one.
And in so doing, hold a bias for the asshole.
Criminal court is intended to be biased towards the defendant. Hence the “beyond a reasonable doubt” burden of proof.
(Obviously that bias is often not upheld properly, and plenty of people are railroaded by the system into unjust convictions.)
The court itself might be, but the judge isn’t supposed to be.
They have procedures and guidelines, for everything involved here. Procedures and guidelines that aren’t supposed to take “ex president” into account.
Judges aren’t supposed to allow anyone to intimidate, threaten or otherwise manipulate the witnesses or jury.
Remember- the people of NY are one of the parties; and all parties are entitled to a fair trial.
The stakes are genuinely higher for the court (and the nation) than in your average trial. Gotta be careful.
The judge doesn’t want to give Trump’s team any ammunition for an appeal.
If you believe this shit, you’re fooling yourself. Guy’s gotten ten warnings when any off-the-street plaintiff would be lucky to get one. Not only will there be ammo for appeal, Merchan is building precedent of untouchability. My man is straight up announcing
The last thing I want to do is put you in jail.
I-fucking-magine this getting said during any other trial. How much more biased can a judge get?
Guy’s gotten ten warnings
Playing Devil’s Advocate here, but nine of those were all reviewed at the same time, and while the decision to group them all together and issue a final warning was pending, the tenth violation was committed. Technically, and this is a really big fuckin’ technically, he has not committed any violations since being put “on notice” that the monetary punishments are over and the jail time would start. They decided on one today that occurred before that decision, so they’re not holding it to the same standard.
I do believe the next violation will carry jail time, without a doubt. Trump has also mostly shut up since being put on notice as well because he doesn’t want to be put in a cell any more than you or I do.
But it is extremely, maddeningly frustrating that Trump has gotten away with it so far. The Judge’s decision today proves beyond a doubt that the law is not being equally applied in favor of Trump himself.
Honestly, I don’t know if I could be an impartial judge in this case, because knowing Trump I would have warned him the very second he stepped foot in the courtroom that he was already on notice and that he should expect jail time if even a single word escaped his mouth that is in violation of the gag order that was already in place. Maybe Judge Merchan is more magnanimous, more cool-headed, or simply too wary of the blowback from applying the law equally with a megalomaniac like Trump who has an army of idiots at his back. I don’t know. All I know is, I don’t think he’s out of line just yet, but hearing statements like “I don’t want to put you in jail” for a guy who is too rich for fines to have an impact on is not reassuring.
I think you’re missing the forest for the trees here, check out some of the other comments here, it’s more complicated and nuanced than that IMO
I think 11 contempt charges represents 10 more “significant warnings” than anyone else would get.
I legitimate appeals court would accept trumps argument and illegitimate courts aren’t going to care and just side with Trump anyhow.
This isn’t for appeals… it’s for mass consumption; and it’s a massive miscarriage of justice.
Wow, he must have really learned his lesson from the last 9 telling offs.
At $1,000 a pop, paid for by his cultists, he doesn’t care.
Sort of my point.
It was one telling off, for 9 separate tweets that the judge was made aware of. So this is his second warning.
Susan Collins has entered the chat
Oh fuck you for reminding me of that shit. Damn near a day ruiner.
Oh neat, a judge admitting that the justice system isn’t blind at all and that there is a privileged class with very different rules.
Fucking yawn. Wake me when Agent Orange is in prison.
Eternal slumber is essentially death though.
Still loads for me. Try a different client.
Image sharing on lemmy is a shitshow. I don’t know what to say ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Edit: you’re on iOS, so I recommend that you have at least Voyager and Mlem. Each have their pros and cons. Mlem used to me my go-to, but now it’s Voyager until Mlem can catch up with some much-needed feature updates.
10th time
only now threatens jail time
Correct me but any pregraduate law student who hasn’t been skipping on their classes could get rich by filing for the obvious bias the judges have to allow 10 contempts of court, wouldn’t they?
This is the second ruling of contempt
First ruling was collectively over 9 comments he made.
This is the second, and said next would be jail time.
So, if I am understanding correctly, as a citizen I can threaten a judge 9 times, or threaten 9 different judges, and demand that I can only be held accountable for only one of them, or for all of them as a package only once?
No, you are not understanding it correctly.
Feel free to explain then, because from here it looks like El Trumpo should have been thrown to jail 8 contempts ago, like any normal citizen. Right now if I was a US citizen I would be justified in citing precedent that I can’t be sent to jail or even threatened with jail time with only 6 contempts.
No thanks
This is the second, and said next would be jail time.
Didn’t they say that after the first as well?
And they’ll say it again after the next.
No.
This is still from the first batch of contempt charges. The judge ruled on 9/10 and wanted more information before ruling on the 10th
When does this raise questions of precedent? Is everyone entitled to 10 violations of a gag order in NYC now?
Only if you can afford $10k/hr
Sounds like a small fraction of what Stormy should’ve charged
This is the second time in this criminal trial (all previous ones have been civil trials), and this me the judge stated that fines are clearly not working and that jail time could be necessary if it keeps happening.
Yes I knew we’ll all believe it when it happens, but it is different now that he’s in criminal court and the maximum fine has been dealt both for the first and second infringement.
Yes, if they can pay the $10,000 fine.
The judge said everyone gets warnings and fines before jail time. If he could, he’d issue a large fine, but he can’t because state law caps the fine at $1,000 per violation. The judge acknowledged that a $10,000 fine for a multi-millionaire isn’t even a punishment, but immediately jailing someone because they can easily afford the fine seemed wrong. Trump violated the gag order 10 times before being officially told to stop, so the judge is lumping them all into a “first” violation. He said the “second” violation absolutely will be punished with jail time. We’ll see.
…but immediately jailing someone because they can easily afford the fine seemed wrong.
No it doesn’t, not even a little bit! Restrictions on their time are the only things rich people understand; they should be jailed instead of fined early and often.
And then they get the case cancelled because it’s clearly bias against them that they don’t get to just pay the same fee as anyone else as a first warning.
Lol…that’s not how it works. You don’t get a case cancelled for the judge holding someone in contempt…
You do if it’s Trump and he uses it to question the judge’s neutrality.
How long do you think before they replace the judge and get things started again? If you believe it won’t be long enough to get him elected then I’ve got a bridge to sell you.
Bullshit fixed-value fines are only a deterrent for poors.
As is intended
Fines not tied to income are a joke
IMO It’s not always that simple. Yes some countries do this but it can also backfire (and has). Some examples:
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unfairly targeting rich people in order to help the town budget
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previous annual incomes may be vastly different from current monthly wages (furloughed etc.)
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punishment being spun as a political tool similar to trump’s martyrs
Wow first bullet is a fascinating point, seems obvious now. Great insight!
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Please stop violating the rules or else I will lightly more consider jail time, through my words alone, and give you an 11th warning.
dewit
