“The View” star Whoopi Goldberg said that former President Donald Trump should be fined $10 million for violating a gag order, rather than a paltry $10,000.
On Thursday’s show, Goldberg played a clip of Trump giving a statement outside of the courtroom on Wednesday, after being fined $10,000 by the judge.
Trump abruptly left the hearing after his former attorney Michael Cohen testified that the 45th president did not ask him to inflate his financial statements.
“The witness just admitted that we won the trial. And the judge should end this trial immediately,” he told reporters before walking away.
TRUMP FINED FOR VIOLATING GAG ORDER: #TheView co-hosts weigh in after former President Trump was fined $10,000 for speaking disparagingly about the judge's law clerk in his ongoing civil fraud trial. https://t.co/cVclFZQmjA pic.twitter.com/aPiCs9NepB
— The View (@TheView) October 26, 2023
Trump’s lawyer Cliff Robert then requested the Judge Arthur Engoron make a directed verdict, which he “absolutely denied.”
“This case has credible evidence all over the place,” Engoron remarked. “There is enough evidence in this case to fill this courtroom.”
Prior to storming out of court, Engoron slapped Trump with a $10,000 fine for violating a gag order that banned him from speaking about court staff, when he talked to reporters earlier in the day.
“This judge is a very partisan judge with a person who is very partisan sitting alongside him ― perhaps even much more partisan than he is,” Trump said in reference to Engoron’s clerk.
When the judge called the former president to the stand Trump said that he had been speaking about Cohen, not the clerk.
“Are you sure you didn’t mean the person on the other side?” Engoron asked while pointing at his clerk.
“Yes, I’m sure,” Trump said on the stand.
Engoron ruled that his testimony was “not credible,” and fined him for violating the gag order that he had put in place earlier this month when Trump dissed his law clerk on social media.
“You’re fined $10,000. Don’t do it again, or it will be worse,” Engoron stated.
After airing the clip of Trump speaking outside of court, Goldberg was visibly flabbergasted at his statement.
“What was he talking about, he has not won a [trial],” she said pointedly at the camera with wide eyes.
“You know, every time we say something that is mistaken, five million people come down on us and [say] ‘you need to correct that,'” Goldberg began.
“I would like the judge to say, ‘You know what, D? I think, from now on, every time you disparage or run over some other law or gag order we’ve put in, it’s going to cost you $10 million,'” she suggested.
“He doesn’t have that, Whoopi,” co-host Sunny Hostin chimed in.
“I feel like he thinks that $5,000, $10,000 doesn’t mean anything, so he keeps doing it,” Goldberg continued.
“But if you had to put your hand in your pocket and find a quick 10 million, I think he might shut up.”
Hostin reiterated that Trump “doesn’t have that kind of money,” and Goldberg added, “I think we should find out. Come on, judge! Fine him!”
Hostin, a lawyer, knocked Trump for saying that “he won the trial already.”
“What really had happened was this judge has already found Trump liable for fraud,” she stated.
Hostin said that Engoron “already ruled that Trump committed years of fraud by inflating his wealth and assets” and “also removed business certificates” from the Trump organization, the man himself, and two of his sons.
“The only thing the judge is determining now is if he has to pay $250,000,000,” she ranted on. “So there’s no witness that’s going to say you won the trial, because you already lost the trial.”
Hostin noted that she found it interesting that Trump lied and “people will believe that, instead of what I just said.”
Goldberg shot back that to her point, that’s why she wanted to see Trump slapped with astronomical fines, and claimed that anyone beside him would receive harsher treatment.
“If you or I had to deal with this, if we were under a gag order, and we went against it, we’d be underneath the jail,” she insisted.
Hostin agreed that the average person would be found in contempt and end up in jail.
“This is telling the American people there’s a difference between him and us, and I don’t like it,” Goldberg concluded.