Donald Trump’s lawyers ask judge to lift gag order in New York
Donald Trump’s lawyers are asking a New York judge to lift an order barring the former president from commenting about witnesses, jurors and others connected to the criminal case that led to his conviction for falsifying records to hide a potential sex scandal.
In a letter Tuesday, Trump lawyers Todd Blanch and Emil Bowe urged Judge Juan M. Merchan to end the gag order, arguing that now that the trial is over, there is nothing to justify “continued restrictions on President Trump’s First Amendment rights.”
Among other reasons, the lawyers said Trump is entitled to “unrestrained campaign advocacy” in light of President Joe Biden’s public comments about the verdict last Friday and his continued public criticism by his former lawyer Michael Cohen and porn actor Stormy Daniels, both key prosecution witnesses.
Trump’s lawyers also say the gag order should be lifted so he can fully respond to his case and conviction at the first presidential debate on June 27.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
Marchen issued the gag order against Trump on March 26, just weeks before the trial was set to begin, after prosecutors raised concerns about the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s tendency to attack people involved in his cases.
Merchan was later banned from commenting about his own family after Trump made a social media post attacking the judge’s daughter, who is a Democratic political consultant. Comments about Merchan and District Attorney Alvin Bragg are allowed, but the gag order prohibits statements about court staff and members of Bragg’s prosecution team.
Trump was convicted Thursday of 34 counts of falsifying business records in what prosecutors said was an effort to hide money paid to Daniels just before the 2016 election. She claims she had a sexual relationship with Trump a decade ago, which he denies. She is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11.
Prosecutors had said they wanted the gag order “to protect the integrity of this criminal proceeding and to avoid prejudicing the jury.” In the order, Merchan noted that prosecutors sought the restrictions “for the duration of the trial.” He did not specify when the restrictions would be lifted.
Blanch told The Associated Press last Friday that his understanding was that the ban would end once the trial ended and that he would seek clarity from Merchan, which he did Tuesday.
“It’s a play on the absurd at this point, isn’t it? Michael Cohen is no longer a witness in this trial,” Blanch told the AP. “The trial is over. Same thing happened with all the other witnesses. So, we’ll see. I don’t mean to disrespect the judge and the process in any way. I just want to be careful and understand when it doesn’t apply.”
Trump continues to operate in the belief that he is still under gag order, telling reporters at Trump Tower on Friday: “There’s a gag order on me, a gag order.”
“I’m not allowed to use his name because he’s banned,” Trump said, referring to Cohen, then called his former lawyer and his opponent in court “a scoundrel.”
During the trial, Marchen accused Trump of contempt of court, imposed a $10,000 fine on him for violating the silence order, and threatened to send him to jail if he did it again.
Trump’s use of the word “sleazebag” to describe Cohen just before the trial infuriated prosecutors, but the judge did not consider it a violation of the gag order. Marchen declined to punish Trump for posts on social media on April 10 that insulted Cohen and Daniels, another key prosecution witness.
The judge said at the time that Trump’s argument that he was responding to previous posts by Cohen that criticized him was “enough to make him wonder” about whether prosecutors had met their burden of proving that the post was out of bounds.