Trump opposes ‘unconstitutional and unlawful’ gag order in NY hush money case

Former President Trump’s legal team has asked the New York judge presiding over his hush money case to block a limited gag order proposed by state prosecutors just weeks before the historic trial is set to get underway.

Trump attorneys Susan Necheles and Todd Blanche wrote in a new court filing Monday that the former president’s status as a leading candidate in the 2024 election, in which he is all but guaranteed the Republican nomination, should bar the state from limiting Trump’s speech throughout the trial.

“It would be unconstitutional and unlawful to impose a prior restraint on President Trump’s First Amendment speech, which, notably, the People have requested around the time of Super Tuesday and as President Biden prepares to use the State of the Union address for his own political advocacy — to assail President Trump based on politically motivated indictments, including the one in this case,” the attorneys wrote.

If the proposed gag order is approved by Judge Juan Merchan, Trump would be precluded from making statements about court staff, their family members and prosecutors other than Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D), so long as the statements are made “with the intent to materially interfere with” the case. Trump would also be barred from making statements about any jurors. 

In their motion, prosecutors cited Trump’s “long history of making public and inflammatory remarks” in his many legal matters as reason to impose the gag order.  

“Those remarks, as well as the inevitable reactions they incite from defendant’s followers and allies, pose a significant and imminent threat to the orderly administration of this criminal proceeding and a substantial likelihood of causing material prejudice,” they wrote.

Gag orders were imposed in Trump’s New York civil fraud case and his Washington, D.C., federal criminal case.

In Trump’s fraud case, which recently ended with Trump and his co-defendants being ordered to pay more than $464 million, the New York state judge imposed a similar gag order after Trump’s Truth Social account falsely derided his principal law clerk as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) “girlfriend.”

Trump sued Judge Arthur Engoron over the order, but upper courts affirmed his ruling before the state’s highest court declined to review it further. The judge fined Trump $15,000 for twice violating the gag order.

The gag order in Trump’s federal election interference case barred Trump from making statements that “target” foreseeable witnesses, court staff and prosecutors. The former president appealed that order, too, but a federal appeals court sided with U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the case.

Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 counts charging him of falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment made to silence adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.

His trial is scheduled to begin March 25 — the former president’s first criminal trial, and the first criminal trial of any former president.