Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks in the hallway outside a courthouse in New York City on March 25, 2024, where he was observing a hearing in a criminal case involving allegations of hush money payments to porn stars.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
A judge issued a limited gag order against Donald Trump on Tuesday ahead of his upcoming criminal hush money trial in New York.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Melchan said in a court order that Trump’s remarks about many people involved in the case were “threatening, inflammatory (and) defamatory.”
“Such inflammatory remarks undoubtedly have the potential to impede the orderly administration of the court,” Merchants ruled.
The gag order prevents Trump from making public statements about potential witnesses and jurors in the case.
If the remarks were made “with the intent to materially interfere” with the case, he must also refrain from talking about the case’s attorneys, court staff, employees of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and their families.
Merchin’s order still allows Trump to speak publicly about Alvin Bragg, and district attorneys are prosecuting the former president on charges of falsifying business records to conceal hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.
The gag order does not explicitly prohibit Trump from criticizing judges.
The decision approved Bragg’s request on February 22 to restrict Trump’s speech on the case, hours after Trump lambasted the judge as a “Trump hater” on social media.
In multiple “Truth Society” posts, Trump called on Murchin to recuse herself from the case and drew the judge’s daughter into his attack by pointing to her work at a Democratic consulting firm.
The blistering attack on Merchant came one day after a judge scheduled the trial to begin on April 15, rejecting a bid by Trump’s lawyers to delay it further.
Trump was in court when Silk made the decision, and he said at a subsequent press conference that he was willing to testify at the trial.
Trump’s attorney, Todd Branch, declined a request for comment.
Trump is already subject to a gag order in a separate criminal case in federal court in Washington, D.C., where he is accused of illegally trying to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden. In December, a federal appeals court upheld Trump’s challenge to the gag order but narrowed the scope to allow him to speak about his prosecutor, special counsel Jack Smith.
Trump is also subject to a gag order in his civil fraud case, in which he was found responsible for fraudulently inflating the value of his assets in business records for financial gain.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
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