CNN correspondent Elie Honig appeared shocked by the number of apparent violations by former President Donald Trump of his gag order in his New York criminal trial.
Judge Juan Merchan placed a gag order on the Republican nominee in his hush money criminal trial preventing him from criticizing witnesses, members of the court, and their families. Prosecutors on Thursday accused Trump of violating the order on four additional occasions.
Merchan, who is expected to make a ruling soon on previous violations, could hold Trump in contempt and impose penalties ranging from issuing a fine to ordering incarceration, although the latter is viewed as unlikely by most observers. Trump has often issued statements via Truth Social attacking the judge and his daughter.
Honig joined CNN for a discussion on Thursday, where he told anchor Wolf Blitzer that the number of times Trump has violated the order “has to be an all-time world record.”
BLITZER: If an average citizen, Elie, were to do what Trump has done — 12 or 15 violations of the judge’s court order — would that average person be eligible to go to jail?
HONIG: Oh eligible and I think quite likely. I mean, I’m not being hyperbolic here. This has to be an all-time world record. I mean, I’ve seen people occasionally breach a judge’s order, breach one of the courtroom rules once, maybe twice. And I tried some bad guys who didn’t really care about rules. But ten times, 12 times, 15 times? This is unseen in my experience. I can’t think of any precedent for this.
Watch the clip above via CNN.
