WATCH: Jesse Watters SHREDS Judge, Exposes Clear Conflict Of Interest

In a controversial ruling on Tuesday, Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan found former President Donald Trump in contempt for violating a gag order related to his ongoing hush money trial, fining him $9,000. Judge Merchan, who has clashed with Trump previously, imposed the fine over nine separate violations, charging $1,000 for each instance. Although the former president was not restricted from targeting Merchan or District Attorney Alvin Bragg initially, the scope of the gag order was broadened to include Merchan’s daughter, a Democratic operative, who had been singled out by Trump. The penalty was escalated from an initial $8,000 after another transgression was reviewed.

Fox News host Jesse Watters passionately criticized the decision shortly thereafter, suggesting a deep-seated conflict of interest involving the judge’s family. “I don’t know what this judge is up to, but I know his family’s getting rich from the trial and the daughter is raising tons of money from this,” Watters said. “The daughter has been paid by the Biden campaign, being paid by Adam Schiff who colluded with the star witness Michael Cohen.”

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“Trump can’t talk about it. Cohen can say whatever he wants, but Trump is gagged. They are threatening to throw the Republican nominee for president in jail for talking during an election,” he argued. His critique extended to the implications of the gag order on the nature of the jury selection. “Now I’m not a lawyer, just play one on TV, but according to the gag, you could have the Loch Ness Monster as a juror and Trump can’t say the Loch Ness Monster is real. That’s a thousand dollars. Boom, right there.”

WATCH:

Prosecutors had argued that Trump should be treated no differently than any other defendant and that his targeting of potential witnesses, including former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen, was tantamount to witness tampering.

“No one is off limits to the defendant. He can attack and seek to intimidate anyone he wants to in service to himself,” said Bragg deputy prosecutor Chris Conroy. The Democrat’s office previously suggested a penalty of $1,000 per offense, which was in line with Judge Merchan’s decision Tuesday.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche argued that Trump was simply responding to political attacks in his posts. Some of the offenses included simply reposting comments by followers, an action that Blanche argued should not be penalized. When the attorney declined to name any specific attacks Trump was responding to, Judge Merchan said coldly, “Mr. Blanche, you’re losing all credibility. I have to tell you that right now. You’re losing all credibility with the court.”

Former President Trump previously tangled with gag orders in other cases. In December, he essentially refused to abide by a gag order reimposed by an Obama-appointed judge in his federal J6 case. Trump, who appealed the initial order, was granted wide latitude by an appeals court to continue attacking special counsel Jack Smith for charging him with Civil War-era crimes. Smith has also charged Trump in a federal case related to the storage of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.

“This petition presents a question of exceptional importance,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in a filing obtained by the New York Times. “Whether a district court may gag the core political speech of the leading candidate for president of the United States — disregarding the First Amendment rights of over 100 million American voters — based on speculation about undefined possible future harms.” Judge Tanya Chutkan had previously ruled that Trump’s words do not have to carry a “clear and present danger” to be curtailed.

Cohen, the Trump fixer, is on the witness stand Tuesday for a second day of testimony. He said previously that he was paid $130,000 by Trump to reach a settlement with adult film star Stormy Daniels and quell rumors of an extramarital affair months before the 2016 election. Cohen ultimately served 13 1/2 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to campaign finance charges related to his work on behalf of Trump. Since being released in 2020, he has produced his own podcast titled “Mea Culpa” and released a book in which he disavows his time with Trump.

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