Trump Rails Against Judge in Hush-Money Case

UPDATE Mar 27, 2024 1:52 PM CDT

Donald Trump on Wednesday took a verbal swing at the New York judge who will oversee his hush-money trial and who put him under a gag order the day prior. In a Truth Social post, Trump called the order "illegal, un-American, unConstitutional" and framed Judge Juan Merchan as "wrongfully attempting to deprive me of my First Amendment Right to speak out against the Weaponization of Law Enforcement" by Democratic rivals. Trump added that the judge's daughter, Democratic political consultant Loren Merchan, "has just posted a picture of me behind bars, her obvious goal, and makes it completely impossible for me to get a fair trial." The gag order does not bar Trump from commenting on Merchan or his relatives, notes the AP.

Mar 26, 2024 3:08 PM CDT

The judge who will oversee Donald Trump's hush-money trial has issued a gag order banning the former president from attacking witnesses, prosecutors, court staff, and jurors in the case. Judge Juan M. Merchan issued the order Tuesday, the day after he rejected Trump's effort to delay the trial again and confirmed it would start on April 15. The order also bars Trump from making remarks about the family members of prosecutors and lawyers involved with the case, CNN reports. The order doesn't apply to remarks about Merchan or Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Bragg filed for a gag order in the case last month, citing Trump's "long history of making public and inflammatory remarks about the participants in various judicial proceedings against him." In his order, Merchan cited "threatening, inflammatory, denigrating" Trump remarks as well as the approaching trial date, the AP reports. "It is without question that the imminency of the risk of harm is now paramount," he said.

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The order bars Trump from commenting on key figures in the case, including Stormy Daniels and his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, reports the AP. Trump has previously described Cohen, who will be one of the main witnesses in the criminal trial, as a "liar" and a "rat," the New York Times reports. In a post on Truth Social before the gag order was issued Tuesday, Trump said Cohen was "death." Trump also attacked the "true and certified Trump Hater" judge and his daughter, though the Times notes that those remarks "do not appear to cross the line the judge has now set." (More Trump hush-money trial stories.)