New York judge to Trump: You’re heading to jail if you violate gag order again

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NEW YORK —  A New York judge warned former President Donald Trump on Monday that he’ll go to jail if he further violates a gag order, starting the third week of his hush money trial on an ominous note before Trump Organization employees walked the jury through accounting evidence at the heart of the case.

State Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan fined Mr. Trump another $1,000 for his 10th violation of the gag order and said his patience is running out.

“It appears that the $1,000 fines are not serving as a deterrent,” Judge Merchan said. “Therefore, going forward this court will have to consider a jail sanction.

“The last thing I wanted to do is put you in jail,” he said. “You are the former president of the United States and possibly the next president as well.”

Locking up Mr. Trump would be a complicated matter since Secret Service agents would have to join him behind bars. Yet prosecutors have raised concerns about Mr. Trump’s comments at the courthouse and on social media.

The defense says Mr. Trump, as a candidate for president, has a right to speak his mind and respond to political attacks.

Judge Merchan has been willing to look the other way on some of the comments, though he wants to protect jurors. His ruling faulted Mr. Trump for commenting on the nature of the jury pool during an April interview on Real America’s Voice.

“The jury was picked so fast. Ninety-five percent Democrats. The area’s mostly all Democrat,” Mr. Trump said in the interview.

Mr. Trump, wearing a navy suit and red tie, sat quietly at the defense table as the judge threatened to put him in jail. The trial is expected to stretch until June and is keeping Mr. Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, off the campaign trail.

Prosecutors allege Mr. Trump and his lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, criminally concealed a payment to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels near the 2016 election through checks and business entries that triggered election and tax offenses.

Mr. Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records. He also denies having a sexual encounter with Ms. Daniels in 2006, as she alleges.

Jeffrey McConney, a former Trump Organization controller, testified Monday about internal company documents that detailed reimbursements for Mr. Cohen, including a wire payment of $130,000 and $50,000 expense for tech services.

The $180,000 amount was doubled, and a $60,000 bonus owed to Mr. Cohen was lumped in for a total of $420,000.

Mr. McConney suggested the amounts were “grossed up” to account for state, city and federal taxes, as prosecutors allege the payments were concealed as income instead of a nontaxable reimbursement.

Mr. McConney testified he couldn’t think of another time when payments were increased to account for taxes in that way.

The Cohen payments were broken into monthly payments of $35,000 and documented as legal fees, according to Mr. McConney. Prosecutors allege Mr. Trump disguised the nature of the Daniels payment and reimbursements to Mr. Cohen.

During cross-examination, the defense argued Mr. Cohen was an attorney with an outside law firm — akin to a vendor for Mr. Trump — so documenting payments to him as legal expenses would be normal and not illegal.

Trump lawyer Emil Bove also said it was a time of “flux and chaos” at the Trump Organization after Mr. Trump’s inauguration to the presidency.

“That’s putting it mildly,” Mr. McConney said.

Prosecutors leaned into that point, saying Mr. Trump still signed checks from his personal account while serving as president. “We would send them to the White House for him to sign,” said Deborah Tarasoff, a 24-year employee of the Trump Organization who oversees its Accounts Payable section.

Jurors got their first glimpse at copies of the $35,000 checks for Mr. Cohen signed by Mr. Trump with his black Sharpie autograph.

Mr. Trump leaned back in his chair, sometimes with his legs crossed, during the testimony. Mr. Trump’s son Eric Trump sat in the front row of the courtroom and nodded his head at times as Mr. McConney described operations at the Trump Organization.