Donald Trump’s lawyers are asking a New York judge to lift the gag order that barred the former president from making comments about witnesses, jurors and others connected to the criminal case that led to his conviction for falsifying documents to cover up a potential sex scandal.
In a letter released Tuesday, Mr. Trump’s lawyers, Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, asked Judge Juan M. Merchan to end the gag order, arguing that there is no justification for “continuing restrictions on human rights.” of President Trump’s First Amendment” now that the trial is over.
Both lawyers said Mr. Trump was entitled to a “no-holds-barred advocacy campaign” in light of President Joe Biden’s public comments on last Friday’s verdict and continued public criticism of him from his ex -lawyer Michael Cohen and porn actress Stormy Daniels, both. key witnesses against him.
Trump’s lawyers also say the gag order must be removed so that he is free to fully address the case and his conviction in the first presidential debate scheduled for June 27.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
Judge Merchan had imposed a gag order on Trump on March 26, weeks before the trial began, after prosecutors expressed concerns about the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s propensity to attack people involved in his affairs.
Juan M. Merchan later expanded it to ban comments about his own family after Mr. Trump made social media posts attacking the judge’s daughter, a Democratic political consultant. Comments about Judge Merchan and prosecutor Alvin Bragg are permitted, but the gag order prohibits comments about court staff and members of Mr. Bragg’s prosecution team.
Donald Trump was convicted Thursday of 34 counts of falsifying business records in a scheme that prosecutors said was an attempt to hide a secret payment to Mr.me Daniels just before the 2016 election. She claims she had a sexual relationship with Mr Trump a decade earlier, which he denies. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11.
Prosecutors had said they wanted the gag order to “protect the integrity of this criminal proceeding and prevent prejudice to the jury.” In the order, Judge Merchan noted that prosecutors had requested the restrictions “for the duration of the trial.” He did not specify when they would be lifted.
Me Blanche told The Associated Press last Friday that his understanding was that the gag order would expire at the end of the trial and that he would seek clarification from the judge, which he did Tuesday.
“It’s a bit of a theater of the absurd at this point, isn’t it? Michael Cohen is no longer a witness in this trial,” Mr.e White at the AP. “The trial is over. Same thing for all the other witnesses. So, we’ll see. I do not mean this in any way to disrespect the judge and the process. I just want to be careful and understand when this no longer applies. »
A gag already violated
Mr. Trump continued to act under the belief that he was still under a gag order, telling reporters Friday at Trump Tower: “I’m under a gag order, a nasty gag order.”
Referring to Mr. Cohen, Donald Trump said: “I’m not allowed to use his name because of the gag order,” before calling his former lawyer who became his enemy during the trial “scum.”
At the trial, Judge Merchan fined Mr. Trump $10,000 for violating the gag order and threatened to put him in jail if he did it again.
Mr. Trump’s use of the term “trash” to describe Mr. Cohen just before the trial outraged prosecutors, but was not considered a violation of the gag order by the judge.
Judge Merchan also refused to sanction Donald Trump for an April 10 social media post containing the insult, which referred to Mr. Cohen and Ms. Daniels.
The judge said at the time that Mr. Trump’s assertion that he was responding to Mr. Cohen’s previous messages that criticized him was enough to raise questions about whether prosecutors had met their burden of showing that the message was off-limits.