Donald Trump warned of possible jail time over repeated gag order breaches

Donald Trump is facing 34 felony charges related to a $130,000 payment made by his former lawyer Michael Cohen to Stormy Daniels in 2016. The payment was allegedly made to silence Daniels from speaking about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump before the presidential election. Trump is currently on trial and has been held in contempt of court for violating a gag order nine times. The judge, Justice Juan Merchan, has imposed fines of $1,000 each time, totaling $9,000. However, Merchan stated that these fines do not seem to be deterring Trump from continuing to violate the gag order. In fact, Trump was fined an additional $1,000 last week for violating the order again. Merchan warned that if Trump continues to disregard the gag order, he may face jail time. The judge emphasized that this would be a "truly the last resort" and expressed his desire to avoid imposing such a sanction. Despite this, Merchan characterized Trump's continued violations as a "direct attack on the rule of law."