Donald Trump’s legal woes increase

New York Judge Juan Merchan on Monday fined former US President Donald Trump $9,000 on nine counts of violating the gag order that the court had imposed on Trump in the “hush money” case. The violations were brought to the notice of the court by the prosecution team. These were statements that Trump had made on his social media platform Truth Social.

The judge warned that he could send Trump to prison if there were further violations. Trump had pleaded that some of the statements were not made by him at all. Merchan said, “Defendant is hereby warned that the Court will not tolerate wilful violations of its lawful orders and that if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances it will impose an incarceratory punishment.”

The judge also said that the $9,000 fine was the maximum fine he could impose under the law. The former president has been facing a tough courtroom situation ever since the trial began nearly a fortnight ago. Judge Merchan had insisted that Trump be present in the court during the trial though Trump had wanted to be away on the campaign trail. The New York trial is one of the four cases that Trump is facing, which includes his role in the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by an irate crowd of his supporters.

Trump’s trial in New York would be a test case for Trump, for his Republican party whether he could be nominated as a presidential candidate with all the legal troubles surrounding him. The former president and the Grand Old Party (GOP) seem to believe that the cases against him in the courts would garner sympathy for him.

Trump, and partly his supporters in the party, have been arguing that these are politically motivated cases pursued by his Democrat opponents in the legal sphere. It is a fact that the attorneys pursuing the cases against Trump are Democrats because in the American system the legal positions of state attorneys are through elections and mostly along party lines.

There is little doubt that Trump has a solid block of supporters, going beyond the traditional Republican voters, and that they could see Trump as a political victim of the ruthless politics of liberals in America.

The ordinary, conservative American voter, which includes the white, undereducated, rural, working class person, is an ardent supporter of Trump. On the other hand, the college-educated, professional voter, which includes white, Latino, Black, Asian person, is more likely a Democrat supporter. The fight between Trump and Democrats’ presumptive nominee, President Joe Biden, is not just a political battle. It is a social and cultural battle as well along well-defined ideological lines.

The US Supreme Court is hearing an appeal by Trump where his lawyers are arguing that as a former president he was immune from prosecution on any legal count. Trump’s argument is that it necessary to honour the office of the highest executive on the land. The Supreme Court, which has three of the justices nominated by Trump during his presidential term, will have a tough task on their hands. The conservatives are in a majority in the court, and it is possible through legal interpretation to justify Trump’s claim for immunity.

It is one of the rare occasions that the American presidential contest is passing through the courtrooms, from the Supreme Court to the trial court in New York. Though Biden is marginally ahead of Trump in the popularity ratings, Trump’s electoral support is not to be underestimated. His position will be endangered only when a conviction verdict emerges from any of the four cases. Trump appears unfazed but it has to be seen whether it will last through the legal trials.