Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will hold rallies in Wisconsin and Michigan on Wednesday, a day after the judge in his New York criminal trial fined him for violating a gag order and warned he could be jailed for further infractions.
Trump's visit to the two battleground states will mark his first major campaign events since the April 15 start of the New York trial, in which he is accused of falsifying business records concerning a hush money payment to a porn star.
The first former U.S. president to stand trial on a criminal charge, Trump is having to schedule his signature campaign events around court proceedings that are expected to last through May.
The rallies on Wednesday in Waukesha, Wisconsin, and Freeland, Michigan, could give him an opportunity to speak about the gag order penalties.
On Tuesday, Justice Juan Merchan fined Trump $1,000 for each of nine online statements that Merchan said violated his order not to criticize witnesses in the trial, including one in which Trump called his former lawyer Michael Cohen a "serial liar."
This gag order is illegal.
And un-American.
@QuirkyEqualityDemocrat2wks2W
Gag orders are constitutional, particularly the one Merchant instituted, because he closely modeled it after the one modified but upheld in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.
@WondrousPolicyPatriot2wks2W
If it's illegal, what are the remedies? Who can shut that down?
@ISIDEWITH2wks2W
In what ways do you think legal challenges should or should not affect a presidential candidate’s ability to conduct campaign events?
@ISIDEWITH2wks2W
How would you react if a political leader you supported was accused of breaking the law but still continued their campaign efforts?
@ISIDEWITH2wks2W
Does the action of holding rallies immediately after facing legal penalties reflect positively or negatively on a leader's character?
@9M22YWW2wks2W
this would make him get something negatively for him to become a leaders character
