Judge Juan Merchan previously said that he would need to see if Trump’s criminal trial was on schedule before granting the former president’s request to pause proceedings
Donald Trump will be able to attend his son Barron Trump’s high school graduation after all.
On Tuesday, April 30, New York Judge Juan Merchan gave the former president — who is on trial for 34 felony charges — permission to miss a court date in May in order to attend Barron’s graduation from Oxbridge Academy in Palm Beach, Florida.
“I don’t think the May 17 date is a problem,” Merchan said in the courtroom, per the The New York Times.
The judge noted that after seeing how the first two weeks unfolded in court, he believed there would be enough time to pause court for a day and still finish the trial as scheduled, per Business Insider.
“We picked the jury pretty quickly,” he said, according to the outlet. “So Mr. Trump can certainly attend that date.”
During his first day in court on April 15, Trump petitioned the judge to adjourn the court during Barron’s graduation. Judge Merchan did not rule on the request at the time, citing time constraints for the trial.
“It really depends on how we are doing on time and where we are in the trial,” Merchan said. “If everything is going according to schedule without unnecessary delays, then I am sure we will be able to adjourn … but if we are running behind schedule, we will not be able to.”
Trump also requested that the court adjourn one day in April so that he could attend Supreme Court arguments, which Merchan quickly denied on the grounds that Trump’s own criminal trial takes precedence over other court cases.
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Though Trump was granted permission on Tuesday to attend his youngest son’s graduation, the hearing also came with some bad news for the former president, as the judge announced that he had found Trump in contempt of court.
Merchan issued Trump a fine of $9,000 for violating his gag order nine times by targeting witnesses and jurors in the trial in online posts. He also warned the Republican presidential candidate that he could be jailed if he violated the gag order again.
“Defendant is hereby warned 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,” he wrote, per CNBC.
Trump — the first U.S. president to face criminal charges — is required to be in court four days a week for the next couple of months while a New York jury hears his case. Trump is accused of falsely documenting hush money payments to Stormy Daniels in his financial records, according to his indictment.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office is expected to argue that Trump falsified the documents in order to conceal attempts to defraud voters and unlawfully tip the 2016 presidential election in his favor.
