Former President Donald Trump said he would be willing to go jail over his repeated violations of a gag order on Monday, stating that the "Constitution is much more important than jail."
Trump has been stuck in a New York courtroom for the past two weeks, but has been fined for violating a gag order 10 times so far, which was imposed by New York judge Juan Merchan. The most recent verdict occurred Monday, and Trump was ordered to pay $1,000 for attacking the jurors in his hush money trial.
“This judge has given me a gag order and said you’ll go to jail if you violate it,” Trump told reporters in a video posted to Truth Social. “And frankly, you know what, our Constitution is much more important than jail. It’s not even close. I’ll do that sacrifice any day."
The former president is referring to Merchan's warning that future violations could warrant jail time, even though Merchan claimed he did not want to put Trump behind bars.
"The last thing I want to do is put you in jail, [but] at the end of the day, I have a job to do," Merchan told the former commander-in-chief. “Your continued violations constitute a direct attack on the rule of law."
The gag order prohibits Trump from verbally and virtually attacking witnesses, jurors, prosecutors, court staff, and the judge’s family. But it does not prevent him from criticizing Merchan himself or Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Trump has also asserted that the gag order is a form of election interference, and that the tight court schedule is designed to keep him off the campaign trail as he runs for president this November.
"What’s happening here is a disgrace, and the appellate courts ought to get involved,” Trump said.
The latest gag order violation occurred on April 22, The Hill reported, when the former president claimed that he could not get a fair trial in New York City because the area is predominantly liberal.
“That jury was picked so fast — 95 percent Democrats,” Trump told Real America's Voice. “The area’s mostly all Democrat. You think of it as a — just a purely Democrat area. It’s a very unfair situation, that I can tell you.”
