Left: Judge Juan Merchan poses for a picture in his chambers in New York, Thursday, March 14, 2024. Merchan is presiding over Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York (AP Photo/Seth Wenig). Right: FILE – Former President Donald Trump is escorted to a courtroom, April 4, 2023, in New York (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File).
New York’s Court of Appeals, the top court in the Empire State, on Tuesday unceremoniously jettisoned Donald Trump’s appeal to lift the gag order in his hush-money case, weeks after the former president was convicted of 34 felony counts in Manhattan.
Without elaborating further, the court tossed the appeal without costs “upon the ground that no substantial constitutional question is directly involved,” yet another blow to the Trump team’s lingering efforts to undo Acting New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan’s gag order, which ordered the defendant to “refrain” from “making or directing others to make public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses,” jurors, court staff, and the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s (D) staff in the case.
New York Court of Appeals dismissal of Trump gag order challenge.
Trump was also ordered not to verbally attack the “family members of any counsel, staff member, the Court or the District Attorney, if those statements are made with the intent to materially interfere with, or cause others to materially interfere” with their work.
“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. Such concerns will undoubtedly interfere with the fair administration of justice and constitutes a direct attack on the Rule of Law itself,” Merchan wrote when expanding the gag order. “Again, all citizens, called upon to participate in these proceedings, whether as a juror, a witness, or in some other capacity, must now concern themselves not only with their own personal safety, but with the safety and the potential for personal attacks upon their loved ones. That reality cannot be overstated.”
In late April, the judge formally held Trump in contempt for numerous gag order violations, warning him of possible jail time.
More Law&Crime coverage: Manhattan DA blasts Trump effort to remove gag order just because hush-money trial is over, suggests long-term speech restrictions covering ‘resolution of any post-trial motions’
During the trial, Trump lawyers asked New York’s high court to find that the gag unlawfully silenced “core political speech on matters of central importance at the height of his Presidential campaign.”
As things stand, Trump is set to be sentenced for the falsification of business records convictions on July 11.
After the verdict but before sentencing, Trump lawyers renewed their efforts before Merchan, asking the judge to lift the gag order, a request that DA Bragg vehemently opposed.
The Trump team argued that “because the trial has concluded,” the “stated bases for the gag order no longer exist.”
The prosecution and the defense are still waiting on the judge to rule on that latest bid to lift the gag.
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