Politics
Column: Donald Trump was just fined for contempt of court. Could he go to jail next time?
Judge Juan M. Merchan has, in his soft-spoken but hard-nosed way, told Donald Trump something no other court has over the course of his many civil and criminal cases: He’s down to his last chance.
Merchan ruled Tuesday on contempt motions brought by the Manhattan district attorney’s office in response to Trump’s serial violation of a gag order prohibiting public statements about witnesses, jurors and others connected to the hush money case. The judge was calm, straightforward and utterly undramatic in announcing that he had found violations in nine of the 10 instances cited by prosecutors.
It was Merchan’s written order that contained the thunder. It forcefully and convincingly rejected Trump’s arguments that the order permits him to respond to supposed political attacks or excludes reposting of others’ social media comments. (It was when Trump lawyer Todd Blanche made those arguments in court that Merchan ominously warned he was in danger of “losing all credibility.”)
Merchan really lowers the boom near the end of the written ruling, advising Trump in no uncertain terms that if he insists on forcing the judge’s hand, he is prepared to put him in jail.
“Defendant is hereby warned,” Merchan wrote, “that the Court will not tolerate continued willful violations of its lawful orders and that if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, it will impose an incarceratory punishment.”
That’s appropriate given the limited legal tools at Merchan’s disposal.
Other courts, for example the federal court handling the Jan. 6 case, can take several intermediate steps to manage a recalcitrant defendant. And those courts have done back flips to avoid putting Trump in jail, being very aware of the political cyclone it could occasion.
But Merchan’s court is more constrained. New York law essentially gives him the option of a fine of up to $1,000 for each act of contempt or a jail term of up to 30 days.
And as Merchan wrote, “While $1,000 may suffice in most instances to protect the dignity of the judicial system, to compel respect for its mandates and to punish the offender for disobeying a court order,” it doesn’t do the trick in the case of a defendant as wealthy as Trump.
Given this dilemma, Merchan could go through several rounds of thousand-dollar fines. But he left it to Trump to decide whether to play the martyr and go to jail for political reasons.
If the former president is determined to continue on his defiant course, Merchan’s unavoidable responsibility will be to have him ushered to a jail cell, beginning perhaps with a short stay in the holding cell at the back of his court. The judge must recognize that his credibility and that of the proceedings are at risk if he lets Trump continue to thumb his nose at his orders without more serious consequences.
Merchan has already scheduled a hearing Thursday to adjudicate four additional alleged instances of contempt on Trump’s part. Don’t expect him to put Trump in custody for those: They occurred before he had issued the clear warning in Tuesday’s opinion.
But if Merchan does find those to be more willful violations of his orders, they look to be the last he will tolerate without a dramatic escalation of the penalties. The lines are drawn; Trump is almost out of chances and knows it.
The defendant may nevertheless dare Merchan, as he did another judge threatening to jail him, to “make my day.” But he had better not be bluffing, because he’s up against a judge who isn’t.
Harry Litman is the host of the “Talking Feds” podcast and the Talking San Diego speaker series. @harrylitman
Politics
Video: Trump Settled a Case With Himself. Was That Legal?
new video loaded: Trump Settled a Case With Himself. Was That Legal?

By Adam Liptak, Paul Abowd, Nikolay Nikolov, Rafaela Balster, Jon Miller and Whitney Shefte
May 21, 2026
Politics
Rep. Tom Kean Jr. says he expects to return to Congress ‘in the next couple of weeks’ after missing 100 votes
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Rep. Tom Kean Jr., R-N.J., said Thursday that he expects to return to Congress “in the next couple of weeks” after missing 100 consecutive House votes during an extended absence tied to what his office has described only as a “personal health matter.”
“My doctors are confident that I’m on the road to a full recovery,” Kean, 57, told the New Jersey Globe in his first public comments since stepping away from Capitol Hill in March.
“I understand the need for public transparency, and I appreciate the support of my constituents,” he added. “I anticipate that in the next couple of weeks, I’ll return to voting and to the campaign trail.”
Kean last voted on March 5 and has missed every House roll call vote since then, according to GovTrack. His absence has drawn heightened attention because Republicans hold a slim majority in the House and because Kean represents one of the country’s most competitive congressional districts ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
TOM KEAN JR’S PROLONGED ABSENCE PUTS PRESSURE ON HOUSE REPUBLICANS’ RAZOR-THIN MAJORITY
Rep. Tom Kean Jr., R-N.J., is running for a third House term in 2026 after fending off Democratic challengers in prior election cycles. (Getty Images)
His office has repeatedly declined to disclose details about the illness, saying only that the congressman is focused on recovery and expected to return “soon.” Fox News Digital reached out to a representative for Kean for additional comment.
Last week, Kean’s father, former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean Sr., told NJ.com that his son was recovering from a “serious illness.”
“You can’t say definitely, but their best guess is now he’ll be out in two or three weeks,” Kean Sr. said, referring to doctors treating his son. “Any time you’ve been through a serious illness, you can’t be 100% the day you get back. You’re gonna be able to do things, but gradually ramping up.”
COMPLEX PARTIAL SEIZURE RULED AS CAUSE OF PAUSING EPISODE DURING HOUSE FLOOR SPEECH, DEM CONGRESSMAN SAYS
Tom Kean Jr., GOP candidate for New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, speaks at his election night party in Basking Ridge, N.J., on Nov. 8, 2022. (Stefan Jeremiah/AP)
Kean Sr. also said doctors expect his son to make a full recovery but declined to discuss the diagnosis.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters this week that he had spoken with Kean recently but was unaware of details surrounding the congressman’s condition.
“We’re expecting him back here soon. He’s had a medical issue,” Johnson said Wednesday. “I don’t even know the details.”
JOHNSON WARNS HOUSE REPUBLICANS TO ‘STAY HEALTHY’ AS GOP MAJORITY SHRINKS TO THE EDGE
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill while House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., listens. (Mariam Zuhaib/AP)
The absence has become a growing political issue in New Jersey as Democrats target Kean’s swing district. Kean is running unopposed in the Republican primary on June 2, while several Democrats are competing for their party’s nomination.
Earlier this month, a top Kean aide told The New York Times, “There’s no cameras where Tom is.”
Kean consultant Harrison Neely said this week the congressman remains committed to seeking reelection.
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“What I can tell you is that the congressman is dealing with a personal health matter. He is focused on his recovery,” Neely told the New York Post.
Fox News Digital’s Adam Pack contributed to this report.
Politics
Influencer files complaint against Steyer campaign, alleging violations
WASHINGTON — A political influencer has filed a complaint against Tom Steyer’s campaign for governor, saying the committee failed to notify her of disclosure requirements, as required by law, when she was paid to meet with Steyer in March and later produced social media content from the meeting.
What’s more, she said the Steyer campaign falsely accused her of posting paid content in support of Steyer’s chief Democratic rival, Xavier Becerra, and failing to disclose it in a complaint filed by the billionaire’s campaign this week.
Maggie Reed, who regularly posts satirical takes on politics to roughly half a million followers on Instagram and TiKTok under the username mermaidmamamaggie, said she was actually paid by Steyer’s campaign and signed an agreement that barred her from disclosing the payment.
She posted, and later deleted, a video from her meeting with Steyer in March.
“In plain terms: the Committee paid for political content, structured it to look like an ordinary creator’s organic opinion, and used a non-disclosure agreement to keep the public from learning the truth,” says the complaint, filed Thursday with California’s Fair Political Practices Commission.
Steyer’s campaign disclosed in a campaign filing that it had paid the agency that represents Reed $5,000 for digital advertising, but didn’t indicate that the payment was connected to Reed’s meeting with Steyer or her production of content.
The Steyer campaign said that while it did pay to meet with Reed, it left the decision of whether to create content entirely up to her.
Since then, Reed has produced several videos expressing support for Becerra, the former California congressman and U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services, but she said that she was not paid to produce those videos and that they reflected her genuine support for Becerra’s campaign.
Becerra has been the top Democrat in recent polling in the race, maintaining a narrow edge over Steyer and a firm grip on one of the top two spots in the June 2 primary that would send him to the general election in November.
Reed’s complaint is the latest volley in a back and forth involving the use of paid influencers in the gubernatorial race.
Two influencers who support Becerra — but were not paid by his campaign — filed a complaint last week saying that a number of influencers had created paid content in support of Steyer but failed to disclose so in their posts.
Steyer’s campaign then filed a complaint earlier this week in which it leveled accusations against Reed and another influencer named Jay Gonzalez, who is now a paid staffer on the Becerra campaign. The complaint alleges that Gonzalez made several pro-Becerra posts after joining the campaign and belatedly amended them to include disclosure that they were sponsored.
The Becerra campaign has maintained that it does not otherwise pay influencers to produce content on its behalf.
Steyer’s complaint included screenshots of an email sent to Reed’s talent agency by a gubernatorial campaign gauging her interest in producing paid content.
While the screenshots produced in Steyer’s complaint did not disclose who had sent the inquiry, Reed said in her complaint that the request had come from a staffer for the gubernatorial campaign of former Los Angeles Mayor and California State Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa.
Disclosure of paid political content by social media creators is required in California thanks to a law passed in 2023.
Influencers themselves are required to disclose that a post they created was sponsored, but campaigns are required to notify them of the requirement.
Violation of the law doesn’t trigger civil, criminal or administrative penalties, but the Fair Political Practices Commission has the right to take violators to court and request that a judge force compliance with the law.
The agreement Reed signed with Steyer’s campaign, which was attached to her complaint, indicated that she needed to follow all applicable state, federal and local laws, but made no specific mention of her requirement to disclose that content she produced was sponsored.
The agreement did specify that Steyer’s campaign might need to disclose the payment.
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