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Former U.S. President Donald Trump attends his trial for allegedly concealing dark money payments at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 6, 2024 in New York.
UNITED STATES – The art of learning to hold your tongue. Donald Trump once again received a warning from the judge presiding over the proceedings at his criminal trial in New York, this Monday, May 6. Judge Juan Merchan accuses the former President of the United States of having violated the ban on verbally attacking witnesses and jurors.
In a written decision the judge imposed a new fine of $1,000 on Donald Trump. for violating his order by making public comments about the jury and how it was selected”. Already last week, the judge fined him $9,000, or $1,000 per offense, for the same reason.
“I find you guilty of criminal contempt for the tenth time”he declared this Monday for Donald Trump during the trial, before adding “In the future, this court must consider a prison sentence. The last thing I want to do is put you in jail,” reports the Washington Post.
Donald Trump rails against jurors and his former lawyer
Since the start of this unprecedented trial for a former American president, launched on April 15, prosecutors had requested that Donald Trump be sanctioned for his repeated violations of the ban on attacking key witnesses in the case, in particular his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who agreed to collaborate with the justice system to avoid a heavy sentence, but also the jurors, whom he implies are not impartial.
The Republican candidate in the November election against the outgoing Democratic president faces conviction and, in theory, up to prison time in this case, one of four criminal proceedings in which he is charged.
He is being prosecuted for 34 falsifications of accounting documents which allegedly served to conceal the payment of $130,000 to former porn star Stormy Daniels in the home stretch of the 2016 presidential election, which he won narrowly. to Hillary Clinton.
This sum was used to buy her silence about a fleeting sexual relationship that she claimed to have had with the real estate mogul in 2006, when he was already married to his current wife, Melania. A relationship that Donald Trump denies.
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