Trump Threatened With Jail Time for Defying Court Order in Fraud Trial, Raising Prospect of Unprecedented Punishment

In an extraordinary development, former President Donald Trump was threatened with serious sanctions or even imprisonment by the judge overseeing his $250 million New York fraud trial, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron admonished Trump in open court on Friday over what he called a "blatant violation" of a partial gag order related to incendiary social media posts attacking the judge's staff. This marks the first time the embattled ex-president has faced consequences for flouting speech restrictions imposed by a court.

"This is a blatant violation of the gag order. I made it clear failure to comply will result in serious sanctions," Judge Engoron stated, according to people in the courtroom. "It remained on the Donald J. Trump campaign site and in fact it has been on there for the past 17 days."

The post in question, which attacked the judge's law clerk, was initially ordered to be deleted. But it remained live for over two weeks on Trump's website, archives show. This defiance drew a sharp rebuke from Engoron, who said: "Incendiary untruths can and have led to serious physical harm."

He then took the unprecedented step of asking Trump's defense lawyer why the former president should not face punishment or even jail time. The lawyer apologized on Trump's behalf, claiming it was an unintentional error.

But Engoron countered that Trump is "responsible for the large machine, even if it is a large machine." The prospect of imprisoning a former president over speech would be an extraordinary development without precedent in American history.

Sources say Trump was not present to hear the judge's harsh words. But attorney Michael Cohen, who expects to testify against Trump in the trial, stated: "Donald knows exactly what he is doing...It is all about his intent to intimidate. Plain and simple."

The blistering rebuke comes as Trump faces mounting legal troubles, including partial gag orders in this civil fraud trial and in a separate criminal case related to the Jan. 6 attack. It underscores the former president's brazen disregard for judicial authority and restraints on his inflammatory rhetoric.

But seeing Trump actually jailed for defying a court remains improbable. The outburst does, however, reveal the extreme tensions simmering under the surface as judges grapple with reining in Trump's habitual trampling of traditional norms and boundaries.