Former President Donald Trump was fined $5,000 by a New York judge on Friday for violating a gag order not to speak about any members of the court staff – and was warned twice about possible imprisonment.

“Donald Trump has received ample warning from this Court as to the possible repercussions of violating the gag order. He specifically acknowledged that he understood and would abide by it,” Judge Arthur Engoron said in his order Friday.

“Accordingly, issuing yet another warning is not longer appropriate; this Court is way behind the ‘warning’ stage.”

  • protist
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    1 year ago

    A lot of complaining on here about the size of the fine or the fact that Trump isn’t in jail yet, or disparate legal treatment for rich people. Let’s think through the implications of putting Donald Trump in jail for this, of all things. If he gets put in jail prior to his trial, I think it’d be better for all of us, and for keeping him in jail, if it happens due to him willfully or maliciously violating a gag order rather than due to an oversight or incompetence among his staff. It’s coming y’all, be patient.

    • Treczoks@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I see the fine as both a warning and a lure for Trump. The court will step up the punishments, of that I am sure. And they started with a, for him, neglectable fine. He and his fanboys might laugh about this, but it could easily lead to prison for the next time he’s fined - he now had ample warning from the court that he will be punished, and the next time it will be a repeat offence.

    • nocturne213@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      If his staff is incompetent he should hire the best and the brightest, or do the work himself.

      • magnetosphere@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        He can no longer afford the best and brightest, and they’re too smart to accept “trust me, bro” as a guarantee of payment. Additionally, he’s not used to doing things himself; he’s used to having underlings do things for him.

        The only people who will work for him now are sycophants and/or people who are motivated by some sort of personal gain. In other words, he’s surrounded by incompetent, greedy losers. Heh heh heh.

      • protist
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        1 year ago

        What? Donald Trump doesn’t know how to operate a website, and few competent people are willing to work for him. None of this changes my argument that if a former president is put in jail, let’s have it be because he did something willfull or malicious

        • paper_clip@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Donald Trump doesn’t know how to operate a website

          “Someone told me I need pipes for the website. We need to get the best pipes. Do they come in gold plate?”

    • lemmyvore@feddit.nl
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      1 year ago

      If they’re avoiding this hard to put him in jail what makes you think he’ll ever get a guilty verdict. All this dancing around makes me believe he’ll never be convicted, or at most it will be a slap on the wrist.

      • protist
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        1 year ago

        How are they “avoiding hard,” in this instance?

      • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        $5000 is a typical fine for first-time violation of a gag order. They are neither avoiding putting him in jail nor eager to put him in jail.

      • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        How is standard procedure “avoiding hard”?

        They have to play it perfect so trump cannot appeal based on bias or mistreatment

    • BolexForSoup@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, at first I was of the mindset that they just ignored the order and enough is enough, but they literally removed it everywhere else except the campaign site. Seems like incompetence and a fine makes sense.