MANHATTAN (CN) — The New York judge overseeing Donald Trump’s hush-money criminal case expanded the gag order against the former president on Monday, lengthening the list of people Trump is barred from attacking in the lead-up to his trial.
Trump will now be precluded from going after the family members of New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan after unleashing a barrage of antagonistic Truth Social posts against the judge's daughter. Merchan also expanded the order to protect the family of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
“This pattern of attacking family members of presiding jurists and attorneys assigned to his cases serves no legitimate purpose,” Merchan wrote in his five-page order. “It merely injects fear in those assigned or called to participate in the proceedings, that not only they, but their family menthers as well, are ‘fair game’ for defendant's vitriol.”
Merchan acknowledged that courts are “understandably concerned” about limiting a defendant’s freedom of speech, particularly when the defendant is a public figure.
“The circumstances of the instant matter, however, are different,” Merchan wrote. “The conventional ‘David vs. Goliath’ roles are no longer in play as demonstrated by the singular power defendant’s words have on countless others.”
Merchan added that Trump’s attacks have raised concerns from potential witnesses, who are fearful of being the subject of the former president's wrath. Those fears “undoubtedly interfere” with the proceedings, Merchan ruled.
“The average observer, must now, after hearing defendant’s recent attacks, draw the conclusion that if they become involved in these proceedings, even tangentially, they should worry not only for themselves, but for their loved ones as well,” the judge said.
Merchan’s order came after Manhattan prosecutors scolded Donald Trump’s “reprehensible rhetoric” in their plea to clarify or expand the gag order.
“Defendant's dangerous, violent, and reprehensible rhetoric fundamentally threatens the integrity of these proceedings and is intended to intimidate witnesses and trial participants alike — including this court,” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo wrote in a Monday filing.
Merchan slapped Trump with a gag order last week that barred him from making “extrajudicial statements” against potential witnesses and others involved in the case.
While the order shielded “court staff” and their families from potential Trump tirades until Monday, it didn’t explicitly offer the judge’s family that same protection. That’s a gray area that Trump had seemingly been exploiting this past week, with his repeated online attacks against Merchan’s daughter.
“Defendant immediately responded by launching a barrage of attacks not only on this court but also on a member of the court’s family — including by posting a photo of the family member,” Colangelo wrote.
Last week, prosecutors asked Merchan to clarify or expand Trump’s gag order to include protections of Merchan’s family, as well as the family of Bragg. Monday’s filing reiterated that request.
“Defendant’s conduct since this court issued the March 26 order is all the record that is necessary to justify a further order making clear that the court’s family is off-limits,” Colangelo added.
Trump, who claims that the gag order is an unconstitutional restriction of speech on a presidential nominee, chided the prosecutors’ ask in his own Monday filing.
“The court should reject the people’s invitations to expand the gag order, which is already an unlawful prior restraint that improperly restricts campaign advocacy,” wrote Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche.
It’s an argument that Trump has repeatedly made when gagged by the courts — that any limitation of his speech is unconstitutional based on his status as a political candidate. Prosecutors called that assertion “disturbing” and “wrong,” considering Trump is using it to attack the family of a sitting judge.
“There is no constitutional right to target the family of this court, let alone on the blatant falsehoods that have served as the flimsiest pretexts for defendant’s attacks,” Colangelo wrote. “Defendant knows what he is doing, and everyone else does too.”
Trump’s attacks on Merchan’s daughter are centered mostly around her work as the president of a political consulting firm that has worked with Democrats, a connection Trump is using to question Merchan’s impartiality.
“Judge Juan Merchan is totally compromised, and should be removed from this TRUMP Non-Case immediately,” Trump said in a post to Truth Social last week. “His Daughter, Loren, is a Rabid Trump Hater, who has admitted to having conversations with her father about me, and yet he gagged me.”
Believing that the tie “warrants recusal,” Trump’s team indicated in the Monday filing that they’ll be using it in an attempt to get Merchan booted from the case altogether.
“Along with this opposition brief, President Trump is simultaneously submitting a pre-motion letter seeking leave to file a recusal motion based on changed circumstances and newly discovered evidence,” Blanche wrote.
Trump previously tried to get Merchan recused last August in an unsuccessful effort. He’s expected to stand trial starting April 15 on charges that covered up hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the leadup to the 2016 presidential election.Prosecutors claim the payments were part of a concerted effort to interfere with the election by falsifying business records to hide a supposed extramarital sexual relationship between Trump and Daniels. Trump has denied any relationship with Daniels and pleaded not guilty to the charges a year ago.
Follow @Uebey
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
Additional Reads
-
-
Sudan war marks one-year anniversary April 15, 2024
-
Hunter Biden appeals April 12, 2024 -
