If Trump defies the gag order — again — he deserves to go to jail

If a U.S. Rep. Donald Jones (he’s fictitious) was on trial for falsifying business records to hide a payment to a mistress to keep quiet about an affair before a 2016 election, he would have already had his trial, been convicted, and served his time in prison.

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And if during this fabricated pol’s trial, he violated gag orders by trashing the case, vilifying the judge, threatening witnesses, and all other manner of gag-worthy gag order violations, the judge would have thrown him in jail. Jones would have learned a hard lesson about keeping his mouth shut.

My fictitious Jones’s seedy scenario is steeped in the reality of how our criminal justice system should work. We’re all getting a continued lesson on how it should not work with the on-again, off-again, on-again trial of former President Donald Trump for paying off his alleged mistress to keep quiet about an affair before the 2016 presidential election and faking business records to make the payment look like a legitimate expense.

In short order, we all know what happened. Trump became president. The feds began an investigation and charged Trump fixer Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to the payoffs of Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal and went to prison. Trump was as an unindicted, unnamed co-conspirator.

Former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance started an investigation. In 2018, Vance declined to run again, current DA Alvin Bragg was elected, and before he left office, Vance inexplicably decided not to bring charges against Trump. Vance’s two top prosecutors resigned in protest. One wrote a tell-all book about Vance’s decision.

Bragg then picked up the dormant case. Trump was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury in March of 2023. Trump initiated delay tactics, stalling the trial. And here we are today, May of 2024, and the trial has begun — nearly eight years after the fact.

Do you think my fictitious Jones would have been able to delay and elongate this storyline?

We can all call B.S. on the axiom that under the eyes of the law, everyone is treated equally. It’s a load of crap, and Trump knows it and exploits it. I’m not even going to get into the three other impending trials that are turtling their way toward their start dates — if they ever start. Trump is being treated differently, always has been, but even more so since he’s become an ex-president. It’s not a surprise, but it’s disappointing how shy those who are in charge are toward bringing down Trump.

It’s time for that to come to some sort of conclusion – even symbolically. Trump’s hush money judge, Juan Merchan, is in the perfect position to demonstrate that he won’t be insidiously intimidated by Trump — and Trump’s position as a former president with a horrid cult following.

Merchan did the requisite minimum this week when he fined Trump $9,000 for repeatedly violating the judge’s gag order. That’s a drop in the bucket for Trump, even if he’s not the billionaire he pretends to be. After he “recognized” Trump’s First Amendment rights, Merchan wrote, “Defendant is hereby warned that the Court will not tolerate continued willful violations of its lawful orders and that if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, it will impose an incarceratory punishment.”

That means that Merchan will throw Trump in jail if he continues to violate the gag order. And sure enough, Trump took to that spitoon of social waste, Truth Social, and spit out this tortured snootful of snuff:

“This Judge has taken away my Constitutional Right to FREE SPEECH. I am the only Presidential Candidate in History to be GAGGED. This whole 'Trial' is RIGGED, and by taking away my FREEDOM OF SPEECH, THIS HIGHLY CONFLICTED JUDGE IS RIGGING THE PRESIDENTIAL OF 2024 ELECTION. ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!!”

Does anyone else agree that reading this is comparable to sticking your fingers down your throat? I can’t think of anything more gag-worthy than “GAGGED, RIGGED, CONFLICTED.” Therefore, Merchan needs to quit playing games with Trump, stop treating him differently than he would my phony Jones, and put Trump in jail.

Everyone talks about why that would be such a bad idea. First, some say, mainly Trump, that it would start riots in the streets. Really? Each day outside of the Manhattan courthouse where the hush money trial has been taking place, there’s been a dozen – or fewer – protesters outside supporting Trump. Trump’s been lying online, saying there have been massive crowds outside, but that’s not the case — at all.

Many of his supporters have seen how guilty insurrectionists have gone to jail (because they are being treated like everyone else who breaks the law), so the MAGA crows are not in a hurry to flood the streets if he goes to jail – because they will go to prison.

Sure, there might be pockets of uprising here and there that rage on Trump’s behalf – but that should not even be a consideration when considering whether to jail Trump for violating a gag order.

Others, mainly Trump, say he will be a “victim” if jailed, and that victimization will be a catalyst supporting his campaign. I beg to differ. Before he was justly made to pay tens of millions of dollars for slandering E. Jean Carroll and hundreds of millions of dollars in fines to New York State for the dirty deeds of the Trump Organization, some pundits said that the overkill on the fees would create sympathy for Trump. Does anyone believe that happened?

Jailing or not jailing Trump has nothing to do with this election. It’s about him breaking the law. If Trump violates the gag order again – as he did this week – Judge Merchan must commence the incarceration process. Another fine will be treated as a joke by Trump and as a nondeterrent. No lessons will be learned.

If Trump is put in jail, the majority of Americans will understand that he pushed the judge too far, that he didn’t do what he was told, that he broke the law. It will demonstrate that Trump isn’t above the law. It’s high time that Trump is treated like an ordinary citizen. Then, there'll be no need to create a fictitious Jones.

John Casey is a senior editor for The Advocate.

Views expressed in The Advocate’s opinion articles are those of the writers and do not necessarily represent the views of The Advocate or our parent company, equalpride.