New York Judge Juan Merchan found Donald Trump in contempt of court once again Monday mnorning for gag order violations connected to his criminal hush money trial.
"The last thing I want to do is put you in jail," the judge said according to the Associated Press. "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 me. To take that step would be disruptive to these proceedings."
A hearing was held last week after prosecutors submitted four video clips of possible violations. One was a video outside the courtroom when Trump again attacked his former attorney, Michael Cohen, as a "liar."
Trump's lawyers submitted nearly 500 pages of evidence in a bid to refute the alleged violations.
The judge only found Trump had violated the gag order once for comments he gave to a Real America's Voice on April 22.
Judge Merchan grew impatient as one of Trump's lawyers tried to justify Trump's April 22 comments to the Real America's Voice TV network that the jury was "95% Democrats," "the area's mostly all Democrat," and, "It's a very unfair situation that I can tell you."
Prosecutors said they weren't yet seeking to have Trump jailed as punishment. They are asking for $1,000 fines for each violation.
Merchan noted that the low fines were not likely to deter Trump so he, once again, warned Trump could face jailtime for future violations.
Last week the judge ruled that he had nine previous violations and fined him $9,000.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
