The prosecutor who secured the first conviction of a former U.S. president argued as much Donald Trump should still be subject to rules designed to protect prosecutors and jurors from his “inflammatory public attacks,” citing a wave of threats against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, his family and DA associates this year.
Trump was convicted on May 30 of 34 crimes in connection with a hush-money scheme, and the presumptive Republican presidential nominee will be sentenced on July 11, just days before the Republican convention.
A new filing from Bragg’s team, signed by Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo, includes affidavits from New York Police Department Sergeant Nicholas Pistilli, who said the NYPD’s Threat Assessment & Protection Unit filed 61 threat cases against Bragg or his family and employees. , the majority of which came in the past three months.
He cited examples that read: “we will kill you all,” “you are dead,” “Your life is over” and “RIP,” as well as “a message showing sniper shots at people involved in this case or at a family member of such a person, and a mailing containing the home address of an employee of the DA Office.”
On April 15, the first day of the trial, bomb threats were also made against the homes of two people involved in the case, Pistilli wrote. The district attorney has also forwarded nearly 500 emails and phone calls for security review since April, he wrote.
The prosecutor’s filing cited NBC News showing that Trump’s guilty verdict had set off a wave of violent rhetoric against prosecutors, the judge and jurors who agreed there was no reasonable doubt that Trump had 34 felonies committed.
The prosecutor noted that there is nothing to stop Trump from “broadly criticizing the verdict, the criminal procedure, the prosecutor, this court and more – and indeed, the suspect has expressed himself both during the trial and after the guilty verdict embroiled in a barrage of such criticism.”
The prosecutor said Trump’s proposal to end the gag order “once again includes a number of categorically false allegations,” including that the prosecutor is engaged in a conspiracy with others to “suppress the defendant’s speech at an upcoming presidential debate to limit,” an accusation that has “no basis in fact” and is “a lie,” prosecutors wrote.
“These deliberate falsehoods are just the latest examples of the suspect’s blatant disrespect for the rule of law and the impartial administration of justice,” prosecutors wrote. “As the suspect’s continued conduct makes clear, the need to protect participants in these criminal proceedings and the integrity of the criminal process from the suspect’s attacks remains critical.”
The district attorney’s office argues that the gag order should remain in effect when it comes to attorneys, district attorney employees and family members, and that the gag order should remain in effect when it comes to jurors. But they say Trump should be able to speak about witnesses.
“Now that the jury has returned a verdict, the compelling interest in protecting the witnesses’ ability to testify without interference no longer exists,” Bragg’s office wrote. “The relevant balance of interests has therefore shifted from the moment this Court issued the orders restricting the suspect’s extrajudicial statements.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
