Former President Donald Trump seemed to indicate on Wednesday that he would not comply with Judge Juan Merchan’s warning of potential imprisonment for any future breaches of his strict gag order.
“Give me liberty or give me death,” Trump wrote Wednesday. “It is a really bad feeling to have your Constitutional Right to Free Speech, such a big part of life in our Country, so unfairly taken from you, especially when all of the sleazebags, lowlifes, and grifters that you oppose are allowed to say absolutely anything that they want,” Trump’s post added. “It is hard to sit back and listen to lies and false statements be made against you knowing that if you respond, even in the most modest fashion, you are told by a Corrupt and Highly Conflicted Judge that you will be put in prison, maybe for a long period of time.”
Trump added: “This Fascist mindset is all coming from D.C. It is a sophisticated hit job on Crooked Joe Biden’s Political Opponent, ME!”
Judges Arthur Engoron and Lewis Kaplan, both hailing from New York, were also targeted in the post, being referred to as “equally corrupt, albeit in distinct manners.”
“What these thugs are doing is an attack on the Republican Party, and our once great nation itself. Our First Amendment must stand, free and strong,” the former president concluded.
The judge cited new examples of Trump violating the order after being fined the week before for similar actions “Merchan warned Trump that continued violations of the order could result in incarceration—a threat he made again on Monday after fining him the maximum of $1,000 for the most recent violation,” NBC News reported.
“It appears that the $1,000 fines are not serving as a deterrent,” Merchan said during early proceedings on Monday.
“The last thing I want to do is to put you in jail. You are the former president of the United States and possibly the next president as well. There are many reasons why incarceration is truly a last resort for you,” he continued, adding that taking that step would be “disruptive to the proceedings.”
Merchan cautioned Trump about the consequences of his deliberate defiance of the court’s orders, stating that it undermines the administration of justice and challenges the rule of law. Such actions cannot be tolerated. Trump quickly responded while outside of Merchan’s courtroom:
“I tell you people, you ask me a question, a simple question, I’d like to give it, but I can’t talk about it because this judge has given me a gag order and said you’ll go to jail if you violate it,” he said. “And frankly, you know what? Our Constitution is much more important than jail. It’s not even close. I’ll do that sacrifice any day,” he added. “So we just found out. The government said they want two to three more weeks,” he said, per The Epoch Times.. They want to keep me off the trail for two to three more weeks. Now, anybody in there would realize there’s no case; they don’t have a case. This is just a political witch hunt, it’s election interference, and this is really, truly election interference,” he said.
