Trump is Fined $10K for Violating Gag Order Transcript

We have breaking news that the former President Donald Trump, has just been fined $10,000 by the judge in his New York City fraud trial. NBC’s Dasha Burns is at the New York Courthouse. What an extraordinary moment it must have been. My understanding is Donald Trump took the stand today. What happened?

Yeah, Chris. That’s exactly right. Quite a dramatic last 15, 30 minutes or so. Inside this courthouse here, the subject of the testimony from Donald Trump. He only took the stand for about a minute or so, but during one of the breaks earlier today when Trump was talking to reporters, he said this, and I’m just going to quote him directly. He said, quote, “A partisan judge with a person who’s very partisan sitting alongside him, perhaps even much more partisan than he is.” The person sitting next to the judge is his clerk.

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Former President Trump initially got in trouble. He got the gag order placed on him after he posted a disparaging post about that very clerk. So when this message, when this quote got back to the judge, he was very upset and considered sanctioning Trump about this. When they got back into the courtroom, at one point he asked Trump to, in fact, take the stand. He asked Trump who he was referring to. Trump said that he was referring to him, the judge, and to Michael Cohen.

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After some back and forth questioning the former president, the judge ultimately determined that Trump was, quote, “Not credible in his testimony,” and decided to find him $10,000. He believed that Trump was, in fact, referring to the clerk. He told him, “Don’t do it again, or it will be much worse,” Chris.

All right. Thank you for that.