NEW YORK — The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s upcoming hush money trial in Manhattan issued a limited gag order Tuesday barring the former president from discussing witnesses and other people involved in the case, a move that could curtail some of Trump’s public comments as he campaigns for president.
Trump’s history of “prior extrajudicial statements establishes a sufficient risk to the administration of justice,” wrote New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, who ruled on Monday that the trial would begin with jury selection on April 15.
Trump is charged with falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment during the 2016 election, which prosecutors say was aimed at keeping information about an alleged affair from the voting public.
It is not the first limited gag order that has been imposed on Trump in recent criminal and civil litigation. Trump, who is known for making false and aggressive claims about those he disagrees with, was barred from speaking about a New York judge’s court staff during a civil trial last year. U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who is overseeing Trump’s criminal election interference case in Washington, has issued a gag order that protects witnesses and court staff.
Merchan’s order says Trump is not allowed to speak about prosecutors working on the hush money case under Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, or their family members, although he is permitted to target Bragg himself in social media posts or campaign speeches. Trump is also prohibited from speaking about members of Merchan’s staff and their families — though there does not appear to be any prohibition on speech about the judge or his relatives.
The decision was issued hours after Trump attacked Merchan’s daughter on social media because of her affiliation with a company that works on campaigns for Democratic candidates.
Merchan’s order also aims to protect jurors or prospective jurors, who will be summoned to the courthouse at the start of the trial. Trump is barred from “making or directing others to make public statements about any prospective juror or any juror in this criminal proceeding,” the order said.
The judge had previously ruled that he would shield the identity of jurors from the public to protect their safety and the process.
Trump lawyer Todd Blanche declined to comment on Merchan’s gag order.
The former president routinely rails on social media and elsewhere about people involved in the case, including two of Bragg’s key witnesses: Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer; and Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress who received the $130,000 payoff from Cohen to stay quiet about her alleged affair with Trump in 2006 — an allegation that Trump denies.
Trump also has directed attacks at Merchan, Bragg and one of Bragg’s lead prosecutors, Matthew Colangelo, making a bogus claim that Colangelo is working on the case at the behest of President Biden.
In last year’s civil business fraud trial, Trump twice violated the partial gag order imposed by New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron and was fined a total of $15,000. That lawsuit was brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James against Trump, his company and several Trump Organization executives, current and former, and resulted in a mammoth, half-billion-dollar penalty that Trump is appealing.
Trump and his advocates have argued that any restriction on his speech is violation of his First Amendment rights and his right to address the public as the likely Republican nominee. “American voters have a fundamental right to hear the uncensored voice of the leading candidate for the highest office in the land,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement.
Trump’s hush money trial is slated to be the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president. He faces three other indictments, in Washington, D.C., and Fulton County, Ga., for alleged efforts to block the results of the 2020 election; and in Florida for allegedly retaining classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach home and private club, and obstructing government efforts to retrieve them.
He has pleaded not guilty in each case and regularly insists that all of them are politically motivated.
