President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump in 2024.
Kevin Lamarque | Jay Paul | Reuters
Former President Donald Trump will have to hold his tongue when he faces President Joe Biden in Thursday’s debate.
Trump remains bound by multiple court-imposed gag orders that limit his ability to speak out about his vast legal troubles.
The restrictions could become an obstacle for Trump if he becomes entangled in a recent conviction in New York or dozens of other criminal charges filed against him in state and federal courts.
They could also provide an opportunity for Biden, who has prepared for the first presidential debate in part by looking for ways to trip up and anger Trump. According to NBC News.
Both Republican candidates and Democratic incumbents are expected to comply Rules for host network CNNwhich enables moderators to “ensure civil discussions.”
hush money gag order
Trump has been grappling with a gag order imposed by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Melchan in the former president’s historic criminal hush-money trial.
The court-ordered gag prohibits Trump from making public statements about witnesses or jurors in the case, or from speaking about attorneys and staff in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and courthouse, or any of their family members.
Trump violated Mo Qian’s gag order ten times during the trial, leading the judge to express contempt for him and even threaten to jail him if he didn’t stop.
Trump was found guilty in late May of 34 counts of falsifying business records, in connection with an effort to silence porn star Stormy Daniels from talking about a one-night stand she had with Trump years ago before the 2016 election. related to the plan.
The gag order was not automatically lifted after the trial, and prosecutors, including Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, argued that Murchin should keep most of the restrictions in place until Trump is sentenced on July 11.
But Merchin partially lifted that order on Tuesday, allowing Trump to speak about trial witnesses and jurors.
Trump remains unable to discuss the various categories of people involved in the case. But he is now free to continue talking about Daniels and his former personal attorney Michael Cohen, two key witnesses who have been the target of Trump’s previous vicious attacks.
Whether he does so on Thursday remains to be seen. familiar sources Trump’s debate prep told NBC he was advised to focus on core issues and policies. But one of the sources noted that “no one is telling Donald what to do.”
lingering restrictions
The recent focus on Trump’s hush-money gag order has obscured the fact that at least two other gag orders appear to remain in effect.
In early October, Judge Arthur Engoron issued a gag order against Trump on the second day of his Manhattan civil business fraud case. Ngolon banned Trump and other parties in the case from talking about court personnel after the former president repeatedly disparaged the judge’s chief law clerk.
Ngoren ordered Trump in mid-February to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and interest following a trial in which New York Attorney General Letitia James accused Trump and others of lying about business records about the value of their assets, to increase his net worth and achieve financial well-being.
The ruling was put on hold after Trump appealed the ruling Bonds were reduced by $175 million. But technically Ngolon’s gag order remains in effect because it does not contain an automatic cancellation mechanism and there was no request to lift it after the trial.
But in reality, the gag order is unlikely to limit the Trump-Biden debate. There is no guarantee that the Ngorong court would seek punishment if his speech did breach the restrictions.
When CNBC called the Ngollon courthouse to ask about the gag order, one person responded: “No one checked. You were the first one to ask.”
Meanwhile, in Trump’s criminal election interference case in federal court in Washington, D.C., Judge Tanya Chutkan limited the number of possible witnesses, court staff and officials, including special counsel Jack Smith, in Public statements made by relevant legal advisors within the company.
A federal appeals court in December narrowed the scope of the gag order, allowing Trump to continue talking about Smith, who is suing the former president in Washington and in Florida over his classified documents.
The case in Washington has been put on hold while the Supreme Court considers Trump’s argument that he is immune from criminal charges because he was president at the time of the alleged crimes.
But Chutkan, in Her December order After putting the case on hold, she said she believed the court still had a duty to enforce a modified gag order or other measures “to preserve the integrity of these proceedings.”
When asked by CNBC on Thursday whether the gag order was still in place, a spokesman for the Chutkan Assembly did not immediately provide confirmation.
The high court’s decision to hear the immunity issue is likely to delay any potential trial until after the November election. The court could issue a ruling as soon as Friday or Monday.
Meanwhile, Smith in the Florida case asked Judge Erin Cannon to impose a gag order on Trump for spreading false claims about FBI agents. Granted the authority to assassinate him When they hit Mar-a-Lago in 2022.
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