Judge Partially Lifts Gag Order, Permits Trump to Criticize Witnesses, Jurors after Hush-Money Conviction

Former president Donald Trump will be allowed to criticize witnesses and jurors from his hush-money conviction in New York on 34 criminal charges last month.

Judge Juan Merchan lifted parts of Trump’s restrictive gag order on Tuesday preventing Trump from commenting publicly about witnesses and jurors.

The ruling comes days before Trump’s first presidential debate against President Joe Biden, where Trump’s criminal conviction is likely going to be a point of contention.

Before the debate was finalized, Biden taunted Trump about the hush-money criminal trial and his availability on Wednesdays. Since Trump’s conviction, the Biden campaign has released an advertisement slamming Trump over being a convicted felon. CNN will be airing the 90-minute debate in primetime from Atlanta, Georgia on Thursday.

Some aspects of Trump’s gag order will remain until his sentencing scheduled to take place next month. Although the charges carry a maximum prison term of four years each, Trump is expected to receive a significantly lighter sentence.

Trump frequently criticizes Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, an elected Democrat, for waging a political prosecution to help Biden. Merchan himself donated to Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, and his daughter is a veteran Democratic strategist whose clients fundraised off the Trump case.

After Trump criticized his daughter’s work for Democrats, Merchan expanded the gag order to prevent Trump from criticizing his family. During the criminal trial, Trump violated the gag order ten times, and Merchan threatened to have him jailed if he continued to do so.

Once the trial concluded, Trump’s attorneys asked Merchan to lift the gag order, arguing it limited his First Amendment rights and restricted his ability to campaign.

Trump was convicted on 34 charges of falsifying business records in connection to reimbursements he paid former attorney Michael Cohen after Cohen paid porn actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

Cohen is a disbarred former Trump fixer who pleaded guilty to financial crimes and perjury related to his work for Trump. Now an vocal Trump critic, Cohen was the prosecution’s star witness at the trial.

The Trump campaign criticized Merchan for failing to lift the entire gag order ahead of the first presidential debate.

“This is another unlawful decision by a highly conflicted judge, which is blatantly un-American as it gags President Trump, the leading candidate in the 2024 Presidential Election during the upcoming Presidential Debate on Thursday,” said spokesman Steven Cheung.

Trump’s legal team will almost certainly appeal Merchan’s ruling in the coming days.