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The judge’s warning upping the stakes over gag order violations had New York City’s mayor chiming in on the former president’s possible fate.

“They’ll be ready.”

Accompanying the ongoing criminal trial of former President Donald Trump over allegedly falsifying business records, the GOP leader has oft-raised the issue about his First Amendment rights and the impact curbing his commentary puts on his third run for the White House.

Aware of the optics, Judge Juan Merchan warned Trump Monday that continued violations of the imposed gag order, now in the double digits, could force his hand to a jail time penalty — a matter New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) was asked about during a Tuesday media availability.

When specifically asked if the Rikers Island prison was ready and if discussions had been had about the president getting sent there, Adams brought up Department of Correction Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie as he responded, “Our amazing commissioner, she is prepared for whatever comes on Rikers Island.”

“I’m pretty sure she would be prepared to manage and deal with the situation — as you see what’s happening with Harvey Weinstein. We have to adjust. You know, in this business, particularly around law enforcement, we have to adjust whatever comes our way,” continued Adams.

“But, you know, we don’t want to deal with a hypothetical,” said Hizzoner. “But, they’re professionals. They’ll be ready.”

Having been slapped with a gag order that prohibits speaking publicly about the case centered around alleged hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels over an alleged extramarital affair, Trump had already been fined a sum total of $10,000 for violations leading the presiding judge to suggest a more impactful punishment could be required, if “necessary and appropriate,” since the president had no trouble paying the penalties.

“Because this Court is not cloaked with such discretion,” Merchan had indicated regarding a route of imposing fines “more commensurate with the wealth of the contemnor” unavailable to him, “it must therefore consider whether, in some instances, jail may be a necessary punishment.”

“The last thing I want to consider is jail,” contended the judge. You are [the] former president and possibly the next president.”

Reacting to the warning over what he considered an “unconstitutional” gag order, Trump had said Monday, “I have to watch every word I tell you people. You ask me a question, a simple question I’d like to give it, but I can’t talk about it because this judge has given me a gag order and [says] you’ll go to jail if you violate it.”

“And frankly, you know what? Our Constitution is much more important than jail. It’s not even close,” the president said. “I’ll do that sacrifice any day.”

The New York Times had previously reported on the “unprecedented logistical challenges” for Trump’s U.S. Secret Service detail, and reiterated those points Tuesday wherein they “would have to protect Mr. Trump within Rikers Island by screening his food, separating him from other inmates and rotating officers into the jail on regular shifts.”

As it stands, former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg is currently serving a five-month sentence in Rikers having pled guilty to lying under oath in the New York civil fraud case.

Kevin Haggerty
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