Could Trump’s next courtroom outburst or Truth Social’s next gag-violating post really be the final straw that lands him incarcerated for contempt of court?
Yes, courthouse veterans said Wednesday — but that doesn’t necessarily mean a correctional bus ride to the city’s notorious Rikers Island jail.
Instead, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan is far more likely to give Trump a taste of incarceration by ordering a short stay in a small secure space just behind the courtroom. audience, experts predict.
“It’s a small preparation room, or witness room,” explains Arthur Aidala, who knows the space well.
His client, Harvey Weinstein, ate lunch there with his legal team every day during the former movie mogul’s 2020 sex crimes trial, which was held in the same 15th floor courtroom as the trial of Trump.
“They could definitely put him in that room that Mr. Weinstein was using and tell him he can’t leave,” said Aidala, who recently got Weinstein’s conviction overturned.
The room has a window, creamy yellow walls, and a small conference table surrounded by wooden chairs with vinyl cushions.
The door locks from the outside.
“We’ve been through this door 20 or 30 times. It’s pretty dirty in there,” said Aidala, of Aidala Bertuna & Kamins.
“You could fit maybe 10 people,” Aidala added of the space. “A former president and nine Secret Service agents.”
“Therapeutic detention place”
Lawyers have a name for the moment when a Manhattan judge orders a defendant to calm down behind the courtroom for a few hours, said longtime public defender Arnold Levine.
“It’s called ‘therapeutic pretrial detention,'” joked Levine, a lawyer for the Homicide Defense Task Force of the Legal Aid Society of New York.
“It’s the judge saying, ‘Here’s a taste of jail for the day,’ so you realize this is a serious matter,” he said.
In 1999, Levine himself was remanded in custody for contempt of court after an argument with a criminal judge at the same courthouse.
Another judge quickly let him out, but not before Levine spent time handcuffed to a courtroom bench and then locked in a pen on the fourth floor.
If prosecutors accuse Trump of violating his silence order again, it would trigger the same multi-day process of filing motions and pleadings that preceded his two previous contempt of court sanctions, which so far have not been resolved. amount to only $10,000 in fines in total.
“You get more due process” when you commit an act of contempt outside of the courtroom, Levine said.
But if Trump acts inside in the courtroom again – for example, if he heckles Daniels one more time when his cross-examination continues on Thursday – he risks the same indictment and the same immediate, on-the-spot conviction for “summary contempt” that Levine faced in 1999.
There would probably be two big differences. Trump would not be locked behind bars since there is no holding cell behind Merchan’s courtroom.
And Trump would likely not be handcuffed at any time while in custody.
Trump was not handcuffed during his secret impeachment in 2023. Former Secret Service agents told Business Insider at the time that handcuffing the former president would hamper their ability to protect him if he were to be impeached. day be thrown to the ground or rushed to safety.
‘Take charge’
For most defendants in Manhattan criminal courtrooms, incarceration is announced by the judge announcing, “Officers to the rails,” said veteran defense attorney and former Manhattan prosecutor Matthew Galluzzo.
“It’s the worst feeling,” Galluzzo said upon hearing those words. “It’s when the judge calls the clerks and tells them to surround the defendant so he doesn’t try to get out of the courtroom.”
But Trump already has at least two court officers behind him at all times in Merchan’s courtroom, for his own protection. Its officers are already “on the rails”.
Instead, reality will set in when the judge gives what is usually the final instruction to court clerks: “Take charge,” Galluzzo said.
At this point, Trump would be led through a door to Merchan’s right and back toward what was once Weinstein’s grim and grimy dining room.
“It’s extremely rare,” Galluzzo said of defendants’ silence orders in general. “Being held in contempt for violating such a law is even rarer. And what happens to a former president would be unprecedented.”
Dip your toes in the water
Still, a stint locked behind the courtroom will be the most likely way for Merchan to “dip Trump’s toes in the water a little bit and give him a taste of what a jail cell would really be like.” ” Galluzzo said.
“I think this is the next step in escalation,” agreed attorney Daniel Scott, a veteran Manhattan defense lawyer who has represented clients for 40 years at the courthouse where Trump is on trial.
“Rikers, logistically, would be a nightmare,” Scott said, adding, “It’s bad enough for Joe Schmoe.”
Trump’s trial is in its third week of testimony. He is accused of falsifying 34 business records to conceal a secret $130,000 payment that silenced Daniels just 11 days before the 2016 election.
Trump has denied falsifying business records and complained that his silence order is a violation of his right to campaign.
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