Fair ruling for a fair Trump trial

Judge Juan M. Merchan's decision on Tuesday to fine former President Donald Trump $9,000 for repeatedly defying warnings not to verbally attack witnesses or jury members in his Manhattan hush-money trial was a necessary measure toward ensuring a fair trial.

Trump invited this sanction by maligning witnesses on social media and on his campaign website. Prosecutors cited 10 incidents where they claimed Trump violated a court order. Merchan verified nine, found Trump in criminal contempt of court, and levied a fine of $1,000 per incident, the maximum amount. A hearing Thursday could lead to more fines for gag order violations. And Merchan, a graduate of Hofstra Law School, has raised the threat of a jail stay if Trump doesn't stop his defiance of court rules. It shouldn't come to that; Trump did take down the offending posts before Merchan's deadline.

Unfortunately, this behavior is part of a pattern. U.S. District Court Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, presiding in Trump’s federal case in Washington involving efforts to overturn the 2020 election — a case on hold pending a Supreme Court ruling on Trump's claim of presidential immunity — previously ordered Trump not to attack court officials and witnesses. Trump, however, has not displayed such troublesome behavior in his federal prosecution in Florida for mishandling classified documents. Trump has praised District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, whom he appointed. “We need judges that love our country so they do the right thing,” he said of her in a 2023 interview.

Like Chutkan, Merchan finds himself in an extraordinary position. These cases are without parallel — the first time in American history that a former president is being criminally prosecuted. The judges have made it clear to Trump, the likely 2024 Republican presidential nominee, that he has the right to express his views and to claim that his prosecutions are politically motivated. But in so doing, he can't interfere with the administration of justice.

The tawdry nature of this trial — Trump’s attempts to influence the 2016 election by covering up an alleged affair with a porno film star with secret payments — is undoubtedly distressing for myriad reasons depending on one's views of the 45th president. To his detractors, it's another example of his unfitness for the presidency. Yet, Trump's successful fundraising off his many prosecutions — a new appeal went out an hour after Merchan's ruling — show that his supporters feel the charges brought by the Manhattan district attorney are meritless and politically based.

But there is a much bigger issue than the fine or Trump himself. Judges must ensure that no one in our society is above the law. A fair trial, free of intimidation or bias, has been a hallmark of our court system for more than 200 years.

Trump would be wise to limit his comments to the ongoing presidential campaign and let the facts in the courtroom speak for themselves.