Judge slaps Donald Trump with gag order in hush money case

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Left: Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg walks in the hallway outside a courtroom where former President Donald Trump is attending a hearing in his criminal case on charges stemming from hush money paid to a porn star in New York, Monday, March 25, 2024. (Brendan McDermid/Pool Photo via AP)/Right: Former President Donald Trump speaks during news conference Monday, March 25, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

With his first criminal trial just weeks away, the judge presiding over The People of New York v. Donald J. Trump imposed a gag order on the former president, barring him from attacking witnesses, prosecutors, and jurors.

Manhattan Judge Juan Manuel Merchan, as Law&Crime previously reported, had warned Trump and his defense team earlier this month that with the likelihood of bribery, jury tampering or other physical injury and harassment, the imposition of a gag order was well within the realm of possibilities.

In Tuesday’s order, Merchan said he was left unconvinced these few weeks later that Trump could stop himself from making comments that would threaten the integrity of proceedings.

Trump’s insistence that as the “presumptive Republican nominee and leading candidate in the 2024 election,” he should have “unfettered access to the voting public” to make attacks or criticize public opponents who are public figures, is wrong.

Merchan wrote:

Defendant contends that continued compliance with the existing orders, referencing both this Court’s admonition at the start of the proceedings and the recent protective order issued on March 7, 2024 with respect to juror anonymity is an effective and less restrictive alternative.

He supports the position by noting he has generally refrained from making extrajudicial statements about individuals associated with the instant case in marked contrast from the significant volume of social media posts and other statements targeting individuals involved in every other court proceeding reflecting in the People’s submission.

The court is unpersuaded.

Trump’s track record of making inflammatory extrajudicial statements was uncontested, according to the judge.

This established the “sufficient risk” necessary under legal standards and “there exists no less restrictive means to prevent such risk,” Merchan added.

Trump has in recent years, for example, publicly decried his onetime fixer Michael Cohen. Cohen is expected to be a witness for the government. Trump has historically referred to Cohen as a “rat” and has also denigrated him as a “liar.”

The criminal trial in New York, after a brief delay, is slated to begin April 15 with jury selection.

In addition to commentary on the witnesses or their roles, Trump is banned from making remarks about the prosecutors, court staff and their family members so long as his statements would be those attempting to interfere with his criminal case, the gag order stipulates.

Notably, the order is absent of language barring Trump from attacking the judge specifically or Merchan’s family.

Early Tuesday, before the gag order was issued, Trump posted a long winding screed on Truth Social but started his complaint by praising the judge’s looks.

“Judge Juan Merchan, a very distinguished looking man, is nevertheless a true and certified Trump hater who suffers from a very serious case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. In other words, he hates me! His daughter is a senior executive at Super Liberal Democrat firm that works for Adam “Shifty” Schiff, the Democrat National Committee, (Dem)Senate Majority PAC, and even Crooked Joe Biden. He was recently the judge on an unrelated trial of a long term employee, elderly and not in good health. This judge treated him viciously telling him either you cooperate or I’m putting you in jail for 15 years. He pled, and went to jail for very minor offenses, highly unusual, served 4 months in Rikers, and now they are after him again, this time for allegedly lying (doesn’t look like a lie to me!) and they threatened him again with 15 years if he doesn’t say something bad about “TRUMP,”[sic]. He is devastated and scared! These COUNTRY DESTROYING SCOUNDRELS & THUGS HAVE NO CASE AGAINST ME! WITCH HUNT!” [Emphasis, grammar, original]

This isn’t the first time Trump has been placed under a gag order.

Trump had argued in December that the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals erred when it found that he did not have limitless First Amendment rights over his public statements made while under indictment. Trump’s history of outbursts at public events at prosecutors, witnesses, the charges themselves, the Justice Department and the judge had prompted the request for the gag by special counsel Jack Smith.

But Chutkan only saw fit to restrict Trump’s language as it pertained to prosecutors on Smith’s team. He would not, she ruled, be allowed to run a “smear campaign” against them or court staff.

An appellate court agreed with the judge when Trump appealed, finding he was not being silenced or censored with the order. Trump’s right to appeal that decision to the Supreme Court was left open. According to the high court, petitions for a writ of certiorari must be made within 90 days from the date of entry of the final judgment in a U.S. state court of appeals or 90 days from the denial of a timely filed petition for a rehearing.