Former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman on Tuesday suggested the judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s trial should place him under house arrest with an ankle bracelet unless he changes his behavior.
The former president is under a gag order that prohibits him from making statements regarding witnesses, prosecutors other than the district attorney, court staff, their families and prospective jurors, which prosecutors allege Trump has breached multiple times. Judge Juan Merchan is holding a hearing Tuesday to determine if Trump has violated the order, and Akerman said on “CNN News Central” that he should confine Trump to his house for two weeks, only permitting him to go to and from the trial in a New York courthouse until he ends the alleged breaches. (RELATED: MSNBC Legal Analyst ‘Really Nervous’ Trump’s Comments Outside Courthouse Could Sway Jurors)
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“If I were the judge, what I would do is I would give him two weeks of home confinement with an ankle bracelet, so that he could not go anywhere other than to and from court with the proviso, if he’s a good boy in those two weeks and he doesn’t violate the gag order, we can take off the ankle bracelet,” Akerman said. “That’s what I would do. That would give him an incentive to clean up his act because if he wants to get out there and campaign or do anything besides going to this trial on Wednesdays and Saturdays and Sundays, this would be a major incentive for him to clean up his act.”
“And I would be majorly interested to find out how Donald Trump would react to that penalty,” anchor Kate Bolduan responded, bursting into laughter.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg recently advocated for the judge to threaten Trump with 30 days in jail if he breaches the gag order in the future, according to a court filing. The district attorney also urged the judge to hold Trump in contempt for previous alleged violations.
“I don‘t think he’s going to go so far as to try to throw Trump in jail or anything like that. He may have stern language, he may have a warning, he may impose a nominal fine, but I think you‘ll make clear to former President Trump that if this behavior continues he’s going to up the punishment,” former Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Tom Dupree predicted on Monday.
Trump is facing 34 felony counts of allegedly falsifying business documents pertaining to payments to porn star Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence regarding an alleged affair in the lead-up to the 2016 election.
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