NEW YORK -- A New York judge on Tuesday issued a gag order barring Donald Trump from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial, citing the former president's history of "threatening, inflammatory, denigrating" remarks about people involved in his legal cases.
Judge Juan M. Merchan's decision, echoing a gag order in Trump's Washington, D.C., election interference criminal case, came a day after he rejected the defense's push to delay the Manhattan trial until summer and ordered it to begin April 15. If the date holds, it will be the first criminal trial of a former president.
"Given that the eve of trial is upon us, it is without question that the imminency of the risk of harm is now paramount," Merchan wrote in a four-page decision granting the prosecution's request for what it deemed a "narrowly tailored" gag order.
The judge said the presumptive Republican presidential nominee's statements have induced fear and necessitated added security measures to protect his targets and investigate threats.
Trump's lawyers fought a gag order, warning that it would amount to unconstitutional and unlawful prior restraint on his free speech rights. Merchan, who had long resisted imposing a gag order, said his obligation to ensuring the integrity of the trial outweighed First Amendment concerns.
"President Trump's political opponents have, and will continue to, attack him based on this case," Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Susan Necheles said in a recent court filing. "The voters have the right to listen to President Trump's unfettered responses to those attacks -- not just one side of that debate."
The gag order bars Trump from either making or directing other people to make public statements on his behalf about potential witnesses and jurors in the hush-money trial. It also prohibits any statements meant to interfere with or harass the court's staff, prosecution team or their families.
It does not bar comments about Merchan, whom Trump referred to after his arraignment last year as "a Trump-hating judge" with a family full of "Trump haters," or Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, an elected Democrat. But it puts Trump on notice that attacks on key figures in the case, like his former lawyer Michael Cohen or porn star Stormy Daniels, won't be tolerated.
A violation could result in Trump being held in contempt of court, fined or even jailed.
"I want to thank Judge Merchan for imposing the gag order as I have been under relentless assault from Donald's MAGA supporters," said Cohen, a key prosecution witness against Trump. "Nevertheless, knowing Donald as well as I do, he will seek to defy the gag order by employing others within his circle to do his bidding, regardless of consequence."
Blanche declined to comment. Bragg's office also declined to comment. A message seeking comment was left for Trump's presidential campaign.
After leaving Monday's hearing where Merchan set the trial date, Trump tore into prosecutor Matthew Colangelo at a press conference, referring to the ex-Justice Department official as a "radical left from DOJ" sent to run the Trump case "by Biden and his thugs." The judge cited those remarks in his ruling.
Information for this article was contributed by Jennifer Peltz, Jill Colvin and Eric Tucker of The Associated Press.
Former President Donald Trump comments as he leaves a pre-trial hearing during a recess with his defense team at Manhattan criminal, Monday, March 25, 2024, in New York. A judge will weigh on Monday when the former president will go on trial. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, Pool)