Appeals court rejects Trump’s bid to delay hush money trial over gag order

A New York appeals court on Tuesday rejected former President Trump’s last-ditch effort to delay his hush money criminal trial while he argues against a gag order the judge overseeing the case imposed. 

Judge Juan Merchan’s gag order precludes Trump from attacking witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and the judge’s family, but it doesn’t stop him from hurling insults at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) or the judge himself. 

During an emergency hearing Tuesday before Justice Cynthia Kern, Trump’s lawyers argued that banning public statements about those individuals is an unconstitutional prior restraint on his right to free speech while running for president and mounting his defense. 

“The First Amendment harms arising from this gag order right now are irreparable,” said Trump lawyer Emil Bove, according to The Associated Press. 

State prosecutors countered that Trump’s remarks threaten the “public interest in protecting the integrity of the trial.”

“This is not political debate. These are insults,” Steven Wu, appellate chief for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, said of Trump’s statements, according to the AP.

Trump’s lawyers had urged the judge to indefinitely pause the former president’s trial, which is scheduled to begin April 15, via an emergency stay while they appeal the gag order. Kern declined to do so, meaning that barring further action, the trial date is set. 

Trump’s lawsuit against Merchan over his gag order, which functions as an appeal, is under seal and not accessible to the public.  

The former president previously employed the tactic in his civil fraud trial, when a different Manhattan judge issued a gag on his speech. Trump’s lawyers appealed the issue to the state’s highest court, which denied it.  

Trump’s request to pause the trial while he argues against the gag order will now go to a full five-judge panel for consideration.  

Merchan’s gag on Trump originally did not include his family members or Bragg’s, but it was expanded after Trump took aim at the judge’s daughter, Loren. Loren Merchan works for the progressive political consulting firm Authentic, which has boasted clients such as President Biden and Vice President Harris.

In a separate effort to delay the trial, Trump’s lawyers have said Merchan should recuse himself from the case over his daughter’s work, asserting that she has a “direct financial interest” in its outcome because of her work for Trump’s political opponents.

Trump is the 2024 presumptive GOP nominee who is expected to face Biden for the White House in November. 

The hush money trial slated to be Trump’s first criminal trial and the first criminal trial of any former U.S. president. It was originally scheduled to begin on March 25, but was pushed back due to a last-minute document dump.  

Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment his ex-fixer, Michael Cohen, made to a porn actress to keep her quiet about an alleged affair with the then-presidential candidate ahead of the 2016 election. He has pleaded not guilty. 

The Associated Press contributed.