Trump gag order tweaked by judge, allows ex-prez to unleash on witnesses, jury after ‘hush money’ conviction
A Manhattan judge Tuesday tweaked the terms of Donald Trump’s gag order in his hush-money case to let him now unleash on witnesses such as Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen.
The former president — and as of May 30, a convicted felon — is still barred from speaking out against the staff and families of Judge Juan Merchan and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Identifying and attacking individual jurors in the case also remains off limits.
But the ruling from Merchan will allow Trump, the 78-year-old current presumptive GOP presidential nominee, to publicly bash the witnesses in the case and the jury as a whole after he was found guilty of covering up a secret payout to the porn star Daniels to hide a sex scandal from voters before the 2016 election.
Trump’s lawyers had urged the judge to remove the gag order entirely, claiming that the real-estate mogul should have an unfettered chance to attack the case in time for his election debate Thursday with Democratic foe President Biden.
Bragg’s office had approved modifying the order to allow Trump to criticize witnesses such as Daniels and Cohen, who have both blasted Trump after the Manhattan jury unanimously convicted him on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
But prosecutors asked for the rest of the order — which is designed to protect the safety of people involved in the case — to remain in place, highlighting 56 alarming new threats received by Bragg, his family and his staff since April.
The gag order has always allowed Trump to rip the case in broad terms and to attack Bragg and Merchan. But Trump has complained that he’s not allowed to bring up the judge’s daughter’s documented consulting work on behalf of prominent Democrats.
Neither that claim — nor the fact that Merchan donated $35 to Democratic causes in 2020 — met the high legal standard to remove a judge from a case, according to New York State’s Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics.
Trump ran afoul of the gag order during his trial by attacking Manhattan prosecutor Matthew Colangelo, who was assigned to his case after serving as a former high-ranking Justice Department official under Biden.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that his hush-money felony conviction was orchestrated by Biden, despite the fact that the Manhattan district attorney is a state official who does not answer to the president.
All in all, Trump breached the terms of the gag order 10 times during the trial, according to Judge Merchan, and was fined $10,000.
Trump’s campaign claimed Tuesday that the former president’s lawyers would “immediately” challenge what they called an “unconstitutional” order still in place. But New York’s mid-level and highest appeals courts have already rejected Trump’s claim that his limited muzzling breaches his constitutional rights.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung on Tuesday called Merchan’s decision “another unlawful decision by a highly conflicted judge, which is blatantly un-American as it gags President Trump, the leading candidate in the 2024 Presidential Election during the upcoming Presidential Debate.”
Trump faces up to four years in prison when he’s sentenced July 11 but could also get probation or community service.
