'GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH!': Trump Remains Defiant After Judge Threatens Him With Jail Over Gag Order

On Wednesday, presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump once again spoke out against the gag order imposed on him by Judge Juan Merchan in the hush money case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D). Trump, who has been found to have violated the gag order on ten separate occasions, has repeatedly railed against the limit on his freedom of speech.

"It is a really bad feeling to have your Constitutional Right to Free Speech, such a big part of life in our Country, so unfairly taken from you, especially when all of the sleazebags, lowlifes, and grifters that you oppose are allowed to say absolutely anything that they want," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "It is hard to sit back and listen to lies and false statements be made against you knowing that if you respond, even in the most modest fashion, you are told by a Corrupt and Highly Conflicted Judge that you will be PUT IN PRISON, maybe for a long period of time."

"This Fascist mindset is all coming from D.C. It is a sophisticated hit job on Crooked Joe Biden’s Political Opponent, ME!. Judges Engoron and Kaplan, also of New York, are equally Corrupt, only in different ways," he continued. "What these THUGS are doing is AN ATTACK ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, AND OUR ONCE GREAT NATION ITSELF. OUR FIRST AMENDMENT MUST STAND, FREE AND STRONG. “GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH!’"

As previously reported by the DC Enquirer, Judge Merchan threatened to throw Trump in jail if he continued to violate the gag order imposed on him by the court. The gag order against Trump restricts him from commenting on witnesses in the case, jurors, and others involved. On Monday, Merchan ruled that the 45th president violated the order a 10th time and thus fined him $1,000. The judge addressed Trump directly in the opening minutes of court, telling him that "the last thing" he wanted to do was to throw a former president and possibly future president in jail for being in contempt. The judge told the defendant that the various violations of the gag order are a "direct attack on the rule of law. I cannot allow that to continue."

"The magnitude of this decision is not lost on me, but at the end of the day, I have a job to do," Merchan explained. "So as much as I don't want to impose a jail sanction...I want you to understand that I will if necessary and appropriate."In the judge's order, Merchan emphasized that future violations would be met with possible incarceration. "Defendant is hereby put on notice that if appropriate and warranted, future violations of its lawful orders will be punishable by incarceration," the order reads.

 In response to the decision, Trump told reporters after court on Monday that going to jail for expressing his thoughts on the case would be worth it. "I have to watch every word I tell you, people," Trump told the press. "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 said, 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. I'll make that sacrifice any day. But what's happening here is a disgrace."

You can follow Sterling on X/Twitter here.