NEW YORK (AP) — A judge on Tuesday modified Donald Trump’s silence order, freeing the former president to publicly comment on witnesses and jurors in the hush-money criminal trial that led to his felony conviction but others connected to the case of the former president. borders until he is sentenced on July 11.
Judge Juan M. Merchan’s decision — just days before Trump’s debate with the president on Thursdaynt Joe Biden – cleanrs the presumptive Republican nominee to once again attack his former lawyer Michael Cohen, porn actor Stormy Daniels and other witnesses. Trump was convicted on May 30 of falsifying records to cover up a possible sex scandal, making him the first ex-president to be convicted of a crime.
In a five-page ruling Tuesday, Merchan wrote that the gag order was intended to “protect the integrity of the judicial process” and that protections for witnesses and jurors no longer applied now that the trial has ended and the jury has been dismissed.
Merchan said it had been his “strong preference” to continue banning Trump from commenting to jurors, but that he could not justify it. The judge did issue a separate order banning Trump and his lawyers from revealing the identities of individual jurors or their home or work addresses. Trump attorney Todd Blanche said after the ruling that the defense team destroyed that information.
“There is sufficient evidence to justify continued concern for the jurors,” Merchan wrote.
Merchan also banned Trump from commenting on court staff, the prosecution team and their families until he is sentenced. He wrote that they “must continue to perform their lawful duties, free from threats, intimidation, intimidation and harm.” That part of the gag order does not prohibit Trump from commenting on the judge himself or on District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office prosecuted the case.
Trump’s lawyers had urged Merchan to lift the silence order entirely, arguing there was nothing to justify continued restrictions on Trump’s First Amendment rights after the trial. Trump has said the silence order has prevented him from defending himself, while Cohen and Daniels continue to pillory him.
Although largely a victory for Trump, his campaign spokesman Steven Cheung criticized Tuesday’s ruling as “yet another unlawful decision by a highly adversarial judge, which is patently un-American because it denies President Trump, the leading candidate in the 2024 presidential election during the upcoming presidential elections, silenced. Thursday debate.”
Cheung said Trump and his lawyers will “immediately challenge today’s unconstitutional order,” arguing that the parts of the gag order still in effect prevent him from speaking about the judge, who he claims has a conflict of interest had, or repeat his baseless claims that Biden led the prosecution.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office had asked Merchan to keep the ban on comments about jurors in place until Trump is sentenced on July 11, but said last week that they would be OK with Trump commenting on witnesses now that the process is over. .
A message seeking comment was left at the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
Trump was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying corporate records stemming from what prosecutors said was an attempt to cover up a hush money payment to Daniels just before the 2016 presidential election. She claims she had a sexual encounter with Trump ten years earlier, which he denies.
The crime carries a prison sentence of up to four years, but prosecutors have not said whether they would seek a prison sentence and it is unclear whether Merchan would impose such a sentence. Other options include a fine or probation.
After his conviction, Trump complained that he was under a “nasty silence order” while simultaneously testing its limits. In his remarks a day after his conviction, Trump called Cohen “a sleazebag,” but not by name.
In a subsequent Newsmax interview, Trump addressed the jury and its makeup, complaining about Manhattan: “It’s a very, very liberal Democratic area, so I knew we were in big trouble,” and claiming: “I never saw a spark of a smile. of the jury. No, this was a location that was very unfair. A small portion of the population is Republican.”
Trump’s lawyers, who said they were under the impression the silence order would end with a verdict, wrote a letter to Merchan on June 4 asking him to withdraw the order.
Prosecutors urged Merchan to keep the ban on comments about jurors and trial personnel in place “at least through the sentencing hearing and the resolution of any post-trial motions.” They argued that the judge “had a duty to protect the integrity of this proceeding and the due administration of justice.”
Merchan issued Trump’s silence order on March 26, a few weeks before the start of the trial, after prosecutors raised concerns about the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s tendency to attack people involved in his cases.
Merchan later expanded the law to ban comments about his own family after Trump posted messages on social media attacking the judge’s daughter, a Democratic political adviser.
During the trial, Merchan held Trump in contempt of court, fining him $10,000 for violating the gag order and threatening to put him in jail if he did it again.
In seeking to lift the gag order, Trump attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove argued that Trump was entitled to “unrestrained campaign advocacy” in light of Biden’s public comments on the verdict, and continued public criticism from Cohen and Daniels.
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Associated Press reporter Jill Colvin contributed to this report.
