Manhattan lawyers ask for ‘gag order’ to contain Trump’s speech at his first criminal trial | International

Manhattan district attorneys investigating Donald Trump’s bribery case against porn actress Stormy Daniels asked a judge on Monday for a gag order to protect the judge, witnesses and others involved in the case. The formula is to restrict Trump’s typically tongue-in-cheek speech, as has already happened during investigations into four other criminal charges against him in Washington. The gag order would limit the possibility of making public comments, sometimes offensive – as was also the case in the New York civil trial for defamation – and sometimes excessively revealing, while in the same process, he identified, in the worst terms, some of the judge’s aides.

He The Stormy Daniels case It will be the first of four criminal cases, with a jury empaneled on March 25. Trump, the favorite Republican candidate in his party’s November presidential primaries, is accused of paying an adult film actress $130,000 in cash in 2016 to buy her silence about their extramarital affair. The bribes were recorded as legal expenses in his company’s accounts, although the aim was to prevent any publicity of the affair damaging his electoral options. The payment irregularities, treated as falsification of business records by the prosecution, border on violations of campaign financing laws.

If the judge in charge of the case, Juan Merchan — the same one who read 34 criminal charges against him last April — approves the gag order, Trump will be barred from making statements about court personnel that “materially interfere with the case,” the owner said. Except for Alvin Bragg, his relatives, any member of the jury, and the Manhattan prosecutors. Prosecutors’ demand to clamp down on Trump’s speech marks a significant increase in his numerous run-ins with justice.

“The need for such protection is pressing,” they wrote in their petition. “The defendant has a long history of making public and inflammatory comments about participants in the various judicial proceedings before him, including judges, witnesses, lawyers and court personnel (…) those comments, as well as the inevitable reactions they provoke. Followers and associates of the accused, this criminal There is a substantial and imminent threat to the orderly administration of the process and a substantial possibility of causing physical harm, – they have argued.

Trump’s intemperance has led to reprimands from some judges. In a civil trial for persistent fraud in his businesses, for which he has been ordered to pay $355 million plus interest – and his lawyers appealed this Monday -, Judge Arthur Angoron was forced to ask the former president’s lawyers to take control. His client, in the same way that someone else begs to pet his dog. Trump’s ineptitude, ineptitude and outbursts in court have often put judges and magistrates on the spot.

“This is election interference pure and simple.”

Trump, who has pleaded not guilty to each of the 91 criminal charges that make up the four indictments against him, has previously made the attack. Gag order which had been imposed on him in two other cases, in Washington and New York. His lawyers have argued that they violated their client’s First Amendment rights, which include freedom of expression, by “suppressing” Trump’s central political speech as a presidential candidate.

His defense expressed regret once again this Monday – at the request of another crooked Democratic prosecutor (Alvin Bragg) who Gag order The restrictive measure, which, if approved, would unconstitutionally violate First Amendment rights, including your ability to defend yourself and the right of all Americans to hear President Trump. “This is election interference pure and simple,” campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement.

Bragg’s office, citing two instances of gag orders, has emphasized that today’s request is especially necessary because it is the first criminal trial of a former president in United States history. Because it is at the state level, if it is declared the guilty party cannot recuse itself or invalidate the process if it reaches the White House in November, which arises in other charges of a federal nature.

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