MANHATTAN (CN) — Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg requested a limited gag order on Monday for Donald Trump in the former president’s upcoming criminal hush money case.
“Defendant has a long history of making public and inflammatory remarks about the participants in various judicial proceedings against him, including jurors, witnesses, lawyers and court staff,” prosecutors said in the motion.
Trump faces charges that he falsified business records at his company to cover up money given to his then-attorney Michael Cohen to pay two women shortly before the 2016 election to cover up supposed extramarital sexual encounters.
Trump has long denied affairs with both porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal and pleaded not guilty to the charges last April. The trial is expected to begin March 25.
Bragg’s office asked Manhattan trial Justice Juan Merchan to restrict Trump from making statements that “threaten, harass, and intimidate” participants in the trial including witnesses, jurors and any individuals associated with the District Attorney’s Office.
This wouldn’t be the first time Trump received a gag order. Trump is under a limited gag order in his D.C. election interference trial. During Trump's recently-concluded Manhattan civil fraud trial, Justice Arthur Engoron issued a gag order against the former president after he lashed out at the justice’s clerk.
The district attorney’s office pointed to previous instances in which Trump attacked individuals involved in legal proceedings against him including social media posts he made before he was indicted in his case.
Several of the posts are included in the motion, including one in which Trump said the “Racist, George Soros backed D.A. Alvin Bragg” was bringing charges against him.
“Defendant’s statements have resulted in credible threats of violence, harassment, and intimidation directed at the District Attorney, his staff and the district attorney’s office,” Bragg’s office said.
Bragg said the district attorney’s office has received “hundreds of threats” because of Trump’s attacks on social media.
An affidavit from New York Police Department Sergeant Nicholas Pistilli attached to the motion illustrated connections between Trump’s public comments and threats the District Attorney’s office has received.
Pistilli points to the first threat that was logged in 2023 was on March 18, 2023, the same day Trump said on social media he was arrested in connection with the hush money case and called on his followers to “PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!”
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