New York State Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan has granted District Attorney Alvin Bragg his long-awaited gag order against Donald Trump, hours after the indicted ex-president attacked the judge and his daughter in a Truth Social post that appeared designed to elicit the very decision the judge made.
Judge Merchan is overseeing the criminal case involving Trump’s payments of “hush money” to adult film actress Stormy Daniels then claiming they were legal expenses. On Tuesday he issued a limited gag order barring Trump from publicly discussing witnesses or court staff, as Reuters reports. Some have noted the case is also about election interference, suggesting the payments were allegedly made to prevent voters from learning about his sexual encounter with the porn star.
The gag order, as Just Security’s Adam Klasfeld reports, only specifies Donald Trump.
Bragg’s office had requested the gag order last month, noting Trump’s “longstanding history of attacking witnesses, investigators, prosecutors, judges and others involved in legal proceedings against him.”
Tuesday morning Trump called Judge Merchan “a true and certified Trump Hater who suffers from a very serious case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
“His daughter is a senior executive at a Super Liberal Democrat firm that works for Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff, the Democrat National Committee, (Dem)Senate Majority PAC, and even Crooked Joe Biden.”
Trump also alleged Merchan treated a defendant “viciously, telling him either you cooperate or I’m putting you in jail for 15 years.”
“He pled, and went to jail for very minor offenses, highly unusual, served 4 months in Rikers, and now they are after him again, this time for allegedly lying (doesn’t look like a lie to me!), and they threatened him again with 15 years if he doesn’t say something bad about ‘TRUMP.’ He is devastated and scared! These COUNTRY DESTROYING SCOUNDRELS & THUGS HAVE NO CASE AGAINST ME. WITCH HUNT!”
Before the gag order was issued, former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance observed, “Trump puts a target not only Judge Merchan in the criminal case in Manhattan but on his daughter. This is a rank effort at intimidating the judge by threatening his family. It merits a gag order but also serious pushback from GOP leadership–which we know won’t come.”
CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen writes the gag order is “well reasoned, tracks other recent ones against Trump, and will withstand appeal.
Trump faces 34 felony counts that charge him with falsifying business records. The trial starts April 15.
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