Former U.S. President Donald Trump has been held in contempt of court and fined a sum of $9,000 for violating a gag order.

Mr Trump, facing a criminal case in Manhattan, was fined by Juan Merchan, the judge overseeing his case. 

“The court will not tolerate continued willful violations of its lawful orders,” Mr Merchan said in a report published by The New York Times on Tuesday. 

Mr Trump was under a gag order that barred him from attacking witnesses, prosecutors, and jurors, among others.

However, his trial case reconvened for a third week as the judge held him for amplifying attacks on witnesses. 

Determined that Mr Trump had broken the gag order by making nine public statements on social media, especially on his campaign website, Mr Merchan ordered the former U.S. president to remove the posts. 

Mr Merchan’s ruling and warning came one week after a fiery hearing in which prosecutors had argued that Mr Trump’s statements posed a threat to the trial. 

Todd Blanche, lawyer to Mr Trump, claimed that the former president had not violated the order, but Justice Merchan chastised the senior counsel for failing to marshal facts.

“You’ve presented nothing,” Mr Merchan scolded Mr Blanche for not substantively addressing the prosecution’s effort to hold Mr Trump in contempt.

The judge’s ruling marked a nadir in relations between the court and the former U.S. president, who stands accused of falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal involving a porn star. 

Mr Trump has been at the trial every day, though he has largely been relegated to the sidelines, complaining to cameras afterwards about the gag order and the judge.