I was going to write the same thing if you hadn’t. It’s a shame I had to scroll so far past the “judge won’t do anything” comments to someone else who’s actually reading the court notes.
He reduced the counts from 10 to 8, due to the defense’s argument about clarification of reposting vs posting, but has yet to rule on the order violations. It’ll likely be the $1,000 per infraction recommendation of the prosecution, with possible jail time for future infractions.
Merchan doesn’t play around, but he’s also smart not to give Trump any reason to claim bias or mistrial. By the book is the right play here.
One issue is that NY law only allows the judge two options: max $1000 or up to 30 days in jail.
This means the judge can’t crank the financial option and jail is still viewed as the nuclear option with high stakes, mostly about the appeals process that could stall the case, just like the DC case.
I hope he’s building a paper trail to make it absolutely bulletproof when he puts trump in jail and points to numerous fines and warnings that did nothing at all to deter him. An appeal should conclude that if anything, this judge gave trump too many chances before finally jailing him.
I was going to write the same thing if you hadn’t. It’s a shame I had to scroll so far past the “judge won’t do anything” comments to someone else who’s actually reading the court notes.
He reduced the counts from 10 to 8, due to the defense’s argument about clarification of reposting vs posting, but has yet to rule on the order violations. It’ll likely be the $1,000 per infraction recommendation of the prosecution, with possible jail time for future infractions.
Merchan doesn’t play around, but he’s also smart not to give Trump any reason to claim bias or mistrial. By the book is the right play here.
One issue is that NY law only allows the judge two options: max $1000 or up to 30 days in jail.
This means the judge can’t crank the financial option and jail is still viewed as the nuclear option with high stakes, mostly about the appeals process that could stall the case, just like the DC case.
Should have day fines in use to not have such a silly maximum that just makes offenses so easy for the wealthy who can toss thousands around.
And that’s why we need fines proportional to an individual’s actual net worth.
Sure, but a judge has to follow the law until it’s changed
I hope he’s building a paper trail to make it absolutely bulletproof when he puts trump in jail and points to numerous fines and warnings that did nothing at all to deter him. An appeal should conclude that if anything, this judge gave trump too many chances before finally jailing him.