D.A. suggests Trump violated gag order with post about daughter of hush-money trial judge
Election 2024
MICHAEL R. SISAK March 29, 2024
Manhattan prosecutors suggested Friday that Donald Trump
this week
violated a gag order in his hush-money criminal case
this week
by assailing the judge’s daughter and making a false claim about her on social media.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office asked Judge Juan M. Merchan to clarify or confirm the scope of the gag order, which he issued Tuesday, and to direct the former president and presumptive Republican nominee to immediately desist from attacks on family members.
In a letter to Merchan, Assistant Dist. Atty. Joshua Steinglass argued that the gag order’s ban on statements meant to interfere with or harass the courts staff or their families makes the judges daughter off-limits from Trumps rhetoric. He said Trump should be punished for further violations.
Trumps lawyers contend that the district attorney’s office is misinterpreting the order and that it doesn’t prohibit
their clienthim
from commenting about Loren Merchan, a political consultant whose firm has worked on campaigns for
Trump’s
rival Joe Biden and other Democrats.
The Court cannot direct President Trump to do something that the gag order does not require, Trump’s lawyers Todd Blanche and Susan Necheles wrote. To clarify or confirm’ the meaning of the gag order in the way the People suggest would be to expand it.
The trial, which involves allegations that Trump falsified payment records in a scheme to cover up negative stories during his 2016 presidential campaign, is scheduled to begin April 15. Trump denies wrongdoing and has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records.
In
his
posts Wednesday on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote that Loren Merchan makes money by working to Get Trump and
he
wrongly accused her of posting a social media photo showing him behind bars.
A spokesperson for New Yorks state court system said that Trump’s claim was false and that the social media account Trump was referencing no longer belong
sed
to Loren Merchan.
The account on X
, formerly known as Twitter,
is not linked to her email address, nor has she posted under that screen name since she deleted the account. Rather, it represents the reconstitution, last April, and manipulation of an account she long ago abandoned, court spokesperson Al Baker said.
In the same Truth Social posts, Trump complained that his gag order was illegal, un-American, unConstitutional. He said Judge Merchan was wrongfully attempting to deprive me of my First Amendment Right to speak out against the Weaponization of Law Enforcement by Democratic rivals.
The gag order, which prosecutors had requested, bars Trump from either making or directing other people to make public statements on his behalf about jurors or potential witnesses in the hush-money trial, such as his lawyer turned nemesis Michael Cohen and
adult filmmaker and
porn actor Stormy Daniels.
The order, echoing one in Trump’s Washington, D.C., election interference criminal case, also prohibits
any
statements meant to interfere with or harass the courts staff
and
prosecution team or their families. Trump, however, is free to criticize Manhattan Dist. Atty. Alvin Bragg, the elected Democrat whose office is prosecuting
himTrump
but Steinglass wants
Bragg’s his
family off-limits
, too
.
In his letter, Steinglass implored the judge to make abundantly clear to Trump that the gag order protects his family, Braggs family and family members of all
other
individuals covered by the gag order. He urged Merchan to warn Trump “that his recent conduct is contumacious and direct him to immediately desist.
A gag order violation could result in Trump being held in contempt of court, fined or even jailed.
Trump’s lawyers argued against
any
such warnings, citing constitutional concerns about restricting
their client’sTrump’s
speech
further
while he’s campaigning for president and fighting criminal charges.
Sisak write for the Associated Press.
