by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
Early this morning Judge Juan Merchan, an acting associate justice of the New York Supreme Court who is presiding over the "hush money" trial of Donald Trump, essentially held the American people in contempt when he fined Trump a paltry $9,000 for violating a court gag order on nine separate occasions.
That would be like the Missouri State Highway Patrol pulling me over nine times for speeding on a single road trip - and the court fining me a total of ninety cents for those dangerous traffic transgressions. My criminal behavior would cost me less than the price of a pack of gum. Donald Trump has probably consumed several meals that cost more than $9,000 during his self-obsessed life on Earth. (Some of his fundraising meals at Mar-a-Lago cost in excess of $800,000 each!)
The judge's fine may have been totally inconsequential - and it was - but it did come with a stern warning to Trump, you betcha it did. If he doesn't start behaving better, the judge may order the loud-mouthed bully to be locked up. A night on Rikers Island for each violation of the gag order sounds fair to this tired old typist - who never speeds - I swear to Mike Parson on a $60 Trump Bible that I don't!
(And if the Secret Service need accommodations at Rikers while Trump is there, let the Republican National Committee pick up that tab!)
Here's the deal, Judge Merchan. Donald Trump is a businessman who is aware of the value of things, and he KNOWS that $9,000 is barely a slap on the wrist - when $140,000 would get him a full-blown ass-whipping with a rolled up magazine from a porn star.
You are seriously out of your depth, Juan!
And America, let's not hold our collective breath waiting on Donald Trump to ever suffer the kind of consequences that real people face. It just ain't a-gonna happen - and you heard it here first!
(Note -:May 1st, 2024: Kindly disregard the entirety to this blog posting. I learned this afternoon that $1,000 per violation of the court gag order was the most that Judge Merchan could impose. My complaint, that there are different justice systems for the rich and the poor, remains, but in this case the fault lies with the law and not with the judge. Apologies, Juan, and I seriously hope that on the next offense, which will come at any moment, you move swiftly to prove your judicial mettle by locking the verbose defendant in one of New York City's more common jail cells!)
1 comment:
Under New York law, $1,000 is the maximum amount a trial judge can fine a person for a single instance of contempt. Trump had nine instances and was fined $9,000.
Fines for contempt sound in equity. The judge has a range of equitable remedies, and the judge always exercises patient discretion. At the most severe end of the range is locking the contemnor up.
Imagine, if you will that behind the judge's bench is a cabinet large enough to hold a shotgun. There is a door to that cabinet. Everyone knows what is in that cabinet. Judge Merchan just opened up the door to that cabinet so that Donald Trump and his legal team got a good look inside. If the judge opens that door again, believe me he will use that shotgun and an incarceratory punishment will hit Defendant Trump as stingly as any rock salt ever fired from a real shotgun hit a trespasser in the butt.
The essence of due process of law is fairness. Fairness requires that Trump get proper notice so that he is not locked up without realizing what he did wrong. Mr. Cohen and Ms. Daniels were also put on notice by Judge Marchan. If they bait the defendant into violating the gag order, the contempt order may now be aimed at them.
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