Two days after former President Donald J. Trump was held in contempt and fined for violating the gag order placed on him in his criminal trial in Manhattan, the judge overseeing the case conducted a hearing to determine if Mr. Trump had broken the rules again.
Justice Juan M. Merchan did not reach a decision on the question during the 40-minute proceeding, which took place on Thursday in Manhattan Criminal Court, where Mr. Trump is being tried on charges of falsifying business records to cover up a hush-money payment to a porn star on the eve of the 2016 election.
But during the hearing — the second in the past two weeks concerning violations of the gag order — Justice Merchan heard arguments from Mr. Trump’s lawyers and prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney’s office about whether the former president should be sanctioned again for ignoring the protective measure an additional four times. The allegations stem from Mr. Trump’s recent remarks in interviews and news conferences, including one that took place outside the same courtroom where his trial is being held.
On Tuesday, Justice Merchan fined Mr. Trump $9,000 for nine earlier violations. In that ruling, the judge bemoaned the fact that he lacked the authority to issue steeper fines and warned the former president that continued disobedience could land him in jail.
The two contempt hearings, coming within a little more than a week, were merely the latest reminder of the extraordinary lengths that judges have gone to keep Mr. Trump from lashing out at the participants in the wide of array of legal matters in which he is embroiled.
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The first incident the judge was asked to consider took place on April 22 as testimony began. Mr. Trump went after one of the state’s main witnesses, Michael D. Cohen, describing him as a liar to reporters gathered in a hallway outside the courtroom. Mr. Cohen, who was once a lawyer and fixer for Mr. Trump, is expected to take the stand in the coming weeks and describe how he paid $130,000 to the porn star, Stormy Daniels, on his boss’s behalf to keep her from going public with the story of a sexual encounter she claims to have had with him.
Later that same day, Mr. Trump made disparaging remarks about jurors during a telephone interview with a right-wing media outlet, Real America’s Voice. The jury, he said, was “mostly all Democrat,” adding, “It’s a very unfair situation.”
And the next morning — just before he was scheduled to appear in court for a hearing on his previous violations of the gag order — Mr. Trump attacked Mr. Cohen again during a television interview with an ABC affiliate in Pennsylvania.
“Michael Cohen is a convicted liar,” Mr. Trump said, “and he’s got no credibility whatsoever.”Another incident took place on April 25 when Mr. Trump, appearing at a news conference in midtown Manhattan, made a comment to reporters about David Pecker, the publisher of the National Enquirer. Later that morning Mr. Pecker would continue his testimony at the trial about deals he had reached with the former president to “catch and kill” negative stories about him.
“He’s been very nice,” Mr. Trump said. “I mean, he’s been — David’s been very nice. A nice guy.”
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