NEW YORK –
Manhattan prosecutors suggested Friday that Donald Trump violated a gag order in his hush money criminal case this week by assaulting the judge’s daughter and making false claims about her on social media.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office asked Judge Juan M. Merchán to “clarify or confirm” the scope of the gag order, which he issued on Tuesday, and to order the former president and presumptive Republican candidate to “immediately desist from attacking to members of his family.” “
In a letter to Merchan, Deputy District Attorney Joshua Steinglass argued that the gag order’s ban on statements intended to interfere with or harass court staff or their families places the judge’s daughter outside the reach of the court’s rhetoric. Trump. He said Trump should be punished for further violations.
Trump’s lawyers maintain that the district attorney’s office is misinterpreting the order and that it does not prohibit him from commenting on Loren Merchan, a political consultant whose firm has worked on campaigns for Trump’s rival, Joe Biden, and other Democrats.
“The Court cannot ‘order’ President Trump to do anything that the gag order does not require,” Trump 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, involving 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 any wrongdoing and has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records.
In his Wednesday posts on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote that Loren Merchan “makes money working to ‘get Trump’” and wrongly accused her of posting a photo on social media showing him behind bars.
A spokesperson for the New York state court system said Trump’s claim was false and that the social media account Trump was referencing no longer belonged to Loren Merchan.
X’s account, formerly known as Twitter, “is not linked to his email address nor has he posted under that screen name since deleting the account. “Rather, it represents the reconstitution, last April, and manipulation of an account she abandoned long ago,” said court spokesman Al Baker.
In the same Truth Social posts, Trump complained that his gag order was “illegal, un-American and unconstitutional.” He said Judge Merchan was “wrongly attempting to deprive me of my First Amendment right to speak out against the militarization of law enforcement” by Democratic rivals.
The gag order, which prosecutors had requested, prohibits Trump from making or ordering others to make public statements on his behalf about jurors or potential witnesses in the secret trial, such as his lawyer-turned-nemesis Michael Cohen and the porn star. Stormy Daniels. .
The order, which echoes one in Trump’s criminal election interference case in Washington, D.C., also prohibits any statements intended to interfere with or harass court staff, the prosecution team or their families. Trump, however, is free to criticize Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the elected Democrat whose office is prosecuting Trump, but Steinglass also wants his family out of reach.
In her letter, Steinglass implored the judge to “make it very clear” to Trump that the gag order protects his family, Bragg’s family, and the family members of all other individuals covered by the gag order. He urged Merchan to warn Trump “that his recent conduct is contumacious and order him to desist immediately.”
A violation of the gag order could result in Trump being found guilty of contempt of court, fined or even imprisoned.
Trump’s lawyers argued against such warnings, citing constitutional concerns about further restricting Trump’s speech as he campaigns for president and fights criminal charges.
They said that if prosecutors press the issue, they will want to fully litigate it, adding a potential problem to trial preparations as jury selection begins in just over two weeks.