Manhattan DA Bragg asks judge for gag order in Trump’s hush-money case
Manhattan prosecutors on Monday asked a judge to slap Donald Trump with a gag order to stop him from attacking witnesses or exposing jurors’ identities in the “hush money” criminal case that’s set to go to trial next month.
The motion from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office cites the former president’s “longstanding history of attacking witnesses, investigators, prosecutors, judges, and others” involved in his slew of legal cases as the reason for requesting the order.
It calls for Trump, 77, to be prohibited from making – or directing others to make – disparaging public remarks about potential witnesses and jurors when the trial gets underway March 25 with jury selection.
It also asks for the ex-president to be barred from publicly attacking the court’s staff and the prosecution team and their families, excluding District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the filing shows.
Prosecutors argued the 2024 GOP presidential frontrunner “has a longstanding and perhaps singular history” of using social media, campaign speeches and other public statements to “attack individuals that he considers to be adversaries.”
The court document cites a long list of examples of Trump’s past comments – including one social media post that features an image of him wielding a baseball bat at Bragg’s head.
Judge Juan Manuel Merchan is set to issue a ruling on the gag order request at a later date.
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche declined comment.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments, including to former porn star Stormy Daniels, in the lead up to the 2016 election.
He is already subject to a gag order in his federal case out of Washington DC that has charged him with scheming to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
Trump was also under a limited gag order in his New York civil fraud trial – and was fined $15,000 after the judge in that case found he had violated it twice.
In that instance, the order was imposed by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron after Trump had made a disparaging social media post about the judge’s chief law clerk.