Appearances, starting with people. For the people. This is the District Attorney, and katherine ellis. The defense counsel, joined by President Trump, todd blanche, and kendra whorton. Good morning. Good morning, mr. Trump. The matter called into the record is the peoples motion for contempt. Before i hand down my decision, i did want to address the defense and mr. Trump. As you know, the prosecution has filed three separate motions asking this court to find you in contempt. In a moment, i will hand down my decision. The third motion, in which i find you in Criminal Contempt for the 10th time. It appears that the 1000 fines are not serving as a deterrent. Going forward, this court will have to consider a Jail Sanction if recommended. It is important to understand the last thing i want to do is put you in jail. You are the former president of United States, and possibly the next president , as well. There are many reasons why incarceration is truly a last resort for me. To take that step would be disruptive to these proceedings which i imagine you want to end as quickly as possible. I also worry about the people who would have to execute that sanction. The court officers, the correction officers, the Secret Service detail, among others. I worry about them and what would go into executing such a sanction. Im also aware of the broad implications of such a sanction. The magnitude of such a decision is not onesided but at the end of the day, i have a job to do and part of that job is to protect the dignity of the judicial system. Your continued violations threatened to interfere with the administration of justice. In constant attacks which constitute a direct attack on the rule of law. I cannot allow that to continue. So, as much as i do not want to impose a sanction, and ive done everything i can to avoid doing so, i want you to understand that i will, if necessary and appropriate. To the attorneys of any other questions about that . I will now and on the decision from the court. This is for the defense, and this is for the people. They give copies to the decision to the parties and the judge says, you can call the trial. This is the people of the state of new york against donald j trump. Kate is on trial continued. This is the third week of trial. This is the most momentous thing that happened today. We knew it was coming but now that it happened, this is a momentous thing, a lawful order of an American Criminal Court with the judge saying, you are repeatedly disobeying this lawful order if lesser sanctions cannot persuade you to stop violating this court order and apparently they cannot , then you will be jailed, even as a former president of the United States, you two are a citizen and subject to the law and every citizen is. We are there. We have never been in a place like this before. Thats because, of really specific, historical circumstances. When Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace he was caught using the powers of the presidency to massive political opponents and resigned in disgrace and his Vice President gave nixon a full pardon. Why . It says explicitly in the explanation of the language of the pardon that that happened so that nixon would not face an indictment and trial. He had resigned the presidency, right . So the threat he posed to the country was over and so he was allowed to evade personal punishment. Remember, that was less than a year after his Vice President also resigned, also as part of, effectively, a plea deal with the Justice Department to avoid his case on 40 felony corruption charges. What happened to spiro agnew was a little like what happened to nixon. There was not a pardon but there was a plea deal to avoid prosecution. The dynamic was the same because he agreed to leave office. The threat he posed as a corrupt person, that threat, because he left office, he was allowed to evade significant personal punishment. So, neither nixon nor spiro agnew went to jail for even a day. Now, we are learning the consequences of, in our history, letting president s evade personal punishment when they commit crimes because we now got a former president is leaving office. Right . Maybe that could have been what he traded his freedom four. What weve got, now, is one of these guys who is staying in public life and therefore, the threat is alive. He is ready to get back into the presidency with four different trials stacked up on the runway. So, no, none of us have any idea what it will mean for us as a country for him to be sent to jail as part of these proceedings. Thats part of what is new for us in this moment. Today, justice, judge merchan said jail is next if trump continues to disobey court orders. Do you think he will continue to disobey these court orders . Judge merchan today said i worry about the people who would have to execute that sanction. The court officers, the correction officers, the Secret Service detail, among others. I worry about them and what would go into executing such a sanction and i am aware of the broad implications but at the end of the day, i have a job to do. Your continued violations of this court lawful order threatened to interfere with the administration of justice, constant attacks constitute a direct attack on the rule of law and i cant allow that to continue. As much as i dont want to impose a sanction, ive done everything i can to avoid doing so i want you to understand that i will. Your direct attack on the rule of law cannot be allowed to continue. A signal moment in american history. It is sort of more clear to me on this day and moment, then it has ever been in my lifetime, that the rule of law is not just a bumper sticker, right . Its not abstract, it doesnt float in like a miasma. The rule of law is specific. It means, for example, that court orders must be obeyed and if you dont obey them, the court will punish you for that. It means that people who are part of the judicial system, judges, court personnel, juries, witnesses, defense lawyers, prosecutors, they are also able to do their work without being threatened or intimidated or harassed or fired by People Associated with the accused. That is law and order, right . Thats nuts and bolts and its under intense, incredible pressure. Its having trouble in our country. As the judge in the first criminal trial is trying to stand up for the rule of law, as he said in this morning, this moment where he warned trump that he is making plans to jail in if you keep violating the court order, while thats happening, simultaneously, the Republican Controlled Senate in the State Of Georgia is moving forward and what appears to be there plans to subpoena the prosecutor with leading the criminal case against trump in the State Of Georgia. District attorney willis is leading the prosecution. As soon as she opened the investigation, the legislature started moving to try to curtail her authority, to give themselves the ability to fire her as a prosecutor. That process has been weaving and winding through legal obstacles for months, but now, they are planning to haul her into the state senate and forced her to turn over evidence and testify herself, under oath, while she continues to lead that prosecution. Meanwhile, simultaneously, capitol hill, we got the republican share of the House Judiciary Committee launching apparently some kind of new investigation into one of the assistant District Attorneys who was in court today leading the prosecution of trump in his new york case. Meanwhile, simultaneously, the former president hosted a high dollar fundraiser at his home in florida in which he brought up the federal prosecutor overseeing the classified documents Espionage Act Prosecution In Florida and the overthrow the government case in washington, d. C. According to a recording of the proceedings, trump said, deranged jack smith, one of the sickest prosecutors in the world , a sick, evil thug. Take a look at the deranged. Hes not attractive, inside and out. You couldnt get a better guy for trying to make the devil that deranged. Yes, this is one unattractive dude, thats why, and he apparently said an expletive after. That was saturday afternoon. Not long after he posted this online on his social media company, arrest deranged jack smith. He is a criminal again, the rule of law is not an abstract feeling or sense of being, its not something you proclaim to be true and then forget. Right . Terrorizing judges and juries and witnesses and prosecutors is something that breaks the rule of law. If those people are intimidated and harassed and threatened, the rule of law has been broken. This past friday, a California Man was criminally charged with making Death Threats against District Attorney willis. A man in new york was charged with threatening attorney general Letitia James and judge and goran. In february, a woman from texas was sentenced to three years in prison for threatening the judge overseeing trumps classified documents case in florida. Not long before that, a different texas woman was charged with threatening the judge overseeing trumps other federal criminal case in washington. Not long before that, the fbi fatally shot a man who had threatened to kill the new york District Attorney, who has brought the case currently being argued in Criminal Court in new york. This has consequences and this stuff is consequences. We are not looking at a big future threat to the rule of law. What you are seeing is actively and currently damaging the rule of law right now. People are intimidated and terrorized. People who work in the legal system as these alleged crimes are adjudicated, they are being harassed, threatened with firing. And intimidated and threatened. And it is happening in all the criminal cases that surround donald trump, right . You might remember this lead in a recent Special Report from reuters. District judge lamberth has been threatened by angry criminals, drug cartels, even al qaeda, but nothing prepared in for the wave of harassment after he began Hearing Cases against supporters of former President Trump who attacked the u. S. Capital in a bid to overturn the 2020 election. He was appointed to the bench by Ronald Reagan and was painted by right wing websites as part of the deep state conspiracy to destroy trump and his followers. Calls for his execution cropped up on protrump websites, and after he issued a Prison Sentence to one item a woman who pled guilty to joining the riot, his chambers voicemail filled with Death Threats. One man found his Home Phone Number and called repeatedly with graphic vows to murder him. He told reuters, i could not believe how many Death Threats i got. Again, this is not some future, potential threat to the rule of law. This is damage to the rule of law and its here already. When participating in the adjudication of alleged crimes by a political figure and his followers, and that brings you Death Threats . The rule of law has been bent, the rule of law has been broken. Those harms to the rule of law, that damage to the rule of law has been inflicted already. The prospect of jail for the Republican Partys active president ial nominee, that is here already. He got his warning in court today in new york, one more violation, and he will be put in jail. That time is now here. We are about to find out what its like to be a country that has a president ial candidate and former president in jail, because he refuses to follow court orders. Its not a fun experiment, its not the future, it is here. Are we ready . The rule of law and the democratic system go together, right . As the rule of law has been bent and broken by trump, we have seen the democratic system bent and get broken by trump. Obviously, we did not have a peaceful transfer of power the last time he competed in and lost an election. There was no commitment at all, no expectation at all, by anyone, that he and his followers will allow for a peaceful transfer of power. This next time if he loses this next election, as well. Hes not even giving lip service to the idea that they will allow for a peaceful transfer of power. He wont even say it and not need it. Even more importantly the not just coming out of his face, in his Republican Party, accepting that his followers will not abide by the results of the next election, and neither will the Republican Party and all of its power and resources. Thats the price of admission to power in that party. In march of this year, the Republican National committee hired two new lawyers to oversee the parties election efforts. Now, two months after that, of those two lawyers, one has been indicted for helping effort to keep him in power illegally after he lost the last election and the second one of those lawyers has just been pushed out of his job partly because hes not willing to do the same thing. Trump originally approved of the hiring, one source told cnn, but sources say trump was then angered after his allies pointed to clips of the lawyer criticizing the false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. The two lawyers hired to oversee legal efforts around the 2024 election, one herself now under indictment and the other one, reportedly fired. For casting doubt that the last election was stolen, for suggesting the real Election Results were a real thing. Think about that for a second. The chief counsel of the national Republican Party, just reportedly fired because he was insufficiently enthusiastic about falsifying Election Results, but working to throw out real Election Results. I know that this feels like an incremental update, but just step back from this for a second. If it is the de facto position of the mainstream Republican Party that we are not going to use the real results of elections to decide who is in power, if, in order to be in a position of authority in the Republican Party you must now pledge to reject Election Results, then tell me. How are we going to decide who is in power in this country . With the other mechanism we will use if its not real Election Results . The idea that there is an abstract rule of law, and abstract democracy that exists, someday distantly in the future, we might lose it, thats not how this goes. The rule of law is mortal. It can be killed. It is wounded when the people involved in the judicial system and the adjudication of alleged crimes are being heard harassed and pressured for doing that work. Democracy is mortal. It can be killed. It does not go away by someone one day proclaiming, we are no longer here by democracy. It goes away when there stops being an expectation that we are governed by democratic means, when there stops being an expectation that elections decide who is in power. The way you lose your democracy is by losing the expectation that we are participating in an election because all sides plan to accept the results, right . To go home if they lose and going off it in office if they win. Once we no longer expect that, we are no longer in a democratic system of government in many important respects. Once one of the two major governing parties no longer believes elections are binding, in many important ways, the democracy should have failed, because they are no longer competing on democratic grounds. Right . Once one of the two major parties is no longer pledging that they will abide by Election Results whether they win or lose, the democratic system of government is not threatened with harm, it is wounded already. So what do we do about that . One way to start dealing with that is to stop pretending its not happening. Threats to the rule of law are not a theoretical prospect. They are here. Prosecutors and judges and jurors and witnesses need defending right now. Right now. They are being threatened right now. Who, for example, is defending d. A. Willis in georgia right now . The Republicanled Legislature in georgia is trying to destroy her and remove her in order to stop her from prosecuting the alleged crimes of former president donald trump. Who is defending her . Threats to democracy are not a theoretical prospect sometime in the future, just like threat to the rule of law. Threats to democracy are here, now. Poll workers and election workers have been chased out of their jobs by the thousands, by threats that are already here. Who will stand up and say, okay, well i am capable, i am brave, i am willing to do something hard for my country this year and i can take one of those jobs, i can drive people to the polls, and door knock for a campaign . I will work at a polling place. Who will stand up and do that . Thousands of experienced poll workers have been chased from their jobs because anti Democratic Movement in this country led by the former president. Its produced such an environment around those low level jobs in the technical part of our democracy that those jobs are unfilled. Who will fill those jobs . Who will do that work lexi its not an esoteric thing. Its