Trump returns to election campaign; If he violates the gag order he will go to jail

Donald Trump will take a one-day break Wednesday in his trial on charges he paid to prevent public disclosures of supporters in the battleground states of Wisconsin and Michigan, a day after a judge found him in contempt and barred him from Threatened to send him to jail for violating the gag order.

His statements will be investigated a day after Trump was fined $9,000 for comments on his social network Truth Social and his campaign website about people connected to the case against him. On Tuesday, Judge Juan M. Marchan warned that if Trump continued to ignore his orders, the court would “impose a prison sentence.”

Trump is trying to juggle something unprecedented in American history: being the Republican Party’s presumptive presidential nominee while also being tried on criminal charges in New York. The former president often uses rhetoric against mercenaries, prosecutors and witnesses at his political rallies and on social networks, which earns him praise and admiration from his followers, but can cause him legal problems.

Trump insists he is merely exercising his right to free speech, but he nevertheless removed the offending comments from his Truth Social account and his campaign website. Merchen is studying other allegations that Trump violated the gag order, and will hear arguments on the case Thursday.

At the end of the hearing on the ninth day, Trump appeared disappointed and said that instead of sitting in the courtroom, he should campaign in Georgia and New Hampshire.

“They don’t want me to campaign,” Trump told reporters.

Trump has called the cases against him “election interference” and said they prevent him from campaigning for the November elections.

The gag order prevents him from making public comments about witnesses, jurors or others connected to the case in New York, including accusing him of illegally influencing the 2016 election by paying publications and individuals to suppress adverse news stories about him. Has been accused of attempting. Trump has declared himself innocent.

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Gomez Licon reported from Miami and Price reported from Freeland, Michigan.