Former President Donald Trump lost an appeal Tuesday of a gag order in the New York criminal trial against him slated to begin next week.
Associate Justice Cynthia Kern, of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, ruled against Trump.
The ruling by Kern, which took 12 minutes, came despite Trump’s lawyers’ attempting to have a complete panel of appellate judges amend or set aside the gag order in Trump’s so-called hush money trial, according to the Associated Press.
It was the Trump team’s second try this week to alter the gag order, which prohibits Trump from speaking publicly about jurors, witnesses and others related to the case, the AP said.
“The First Amendment harms arising from this gag order right now are irreparable,” Emil Bove, one of Trump’s attorneys, stated in Tuesday’s hearing.
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Trump should be allowed to speak as are prosecution witnesses like former lawyer Michael Cohen and porn actor Stormy Daniels, Bove argued.
The gag order, he said, unconstitutionally muzzles Trump’s criticisms of the case and restricts the rights of voters to hear his side.
Steven Wu of the Manhattan district attorney’s office countered, noting a “public interest in protecting the integrity of the trial.”
Wu blamed Trump’s “‘uncontested history of making inflammatory, denigrating’ comments about people involved in the case.”
Is Trump being persecuted?
“This is not political debate. These are insults,” he said.
Fear of having their names in the news has made it difficult for prosecutors to have witnesses come forward, according to Wu.
The gag order allows Trump to publicly criticize Judge Juan Merchan and District Attorney Alvin Bragg, which he has done, the AP reported.
Last month, Merchan, following the lead of prosecutors, issued an order that prohibited Trump from criticizing Merchan’s daughter, Loren Merchan, a political consultant whose firm has had clients like President Joe Biden and other Democrats.
Trump has said the political activism of Merchan’s daughter presents a conflict of interest for the judge and asked that Merchan recuse himself.
The gag order, Trump has posted on social media, was “illegal, un-American, unConstitutional.”
Merchan, Trump said, was “wrongfully attempting to deprive me of my First Amendment Right to speak out against the Weaponization of Law Enforcement” by Democrats.
Trump’s lawyers said the gag order was protecting both Merchans — father and daughter — “from legitimate public criticism.”
“They can talk about me but I can’t talk about them???” Trump posted on his Truth Social.
Jury selection is to begin Monday on Trump’s trial, presided by Merchan.
It’s a criminal case alleging Trump falsified his corporate records to hide payments made to Cohen to suppress claims Daniels made of an extramarital affair with Trump years earlier.
Besides having a Democratic consultant for a daughter, Merchan made three donations in 2020 to ActBlue, a Democrat fundraising organization, including a donation to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, The Epoch Times reported.
