Manhattan Supreme Court judge Juan Merchan on Tuesday imposed a gag order on Donald Trump, barring the former president from making statements about potential witnesses and jurors in the trial related to alleged hush-money payments.
Trump also may not make comments about lawyers involved in the case, court staff, or family members of lawyers or staff if the comments are made with the “intent to materially interfere” with the case.
New York district attorney Alvin Bragg was excluded from the order, which comes weeks before jury selection is set to begin on April 15.
Trump is facing 34 counts of falsifying business records over his alleged involvement with a hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Daniels claimed in the final days of the 2016 presidential election that she had previously had a sexual affair with Trump. Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about her claims. Bragg’s investigation centered on whether Trump falsified internal business records to conceal the reimbursement payments to Cohen as legal expenses.
Bragg requested last month that the judge restrict Trump’s speech about the case.
Earlier on Tuesday, Trump blasted the judge on social-media, calling him a “true and certified Trump Hater.”
“His daughter is a senior executive at a Super Liberal Democrat firm that works for Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff, the Democrat National Committee, (Dem)Senate Majority PAC, and even Crooked Joe Biden,” Trump added.
In another post, the former president called on Merchan to recuse himself, arguing the judge “cannot give me a fair trial.”
However, the gag order does not specifically prevent Trump from criticizing the judge.
Meanwhile, Trump was previously placed under a gag order in a federal criminal case related to his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
The gag order in the Washington, D.C. prevents Trump and others in the case from making public statements about “known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses concerning their potential participation in the investigation or in this criminal proceeding.” The ban also extends to various pareties affiliated with the case or their family members, if statements are intended to “materially interfere” with their work in the case.
However, a federal appeals court altered the order in December to allow the former president to speak about special counsel Jack Smith.