Judge Broadens Trump Restraining Order After Social Posts

Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan extended a gag order on Trump, forbidding him from targeting his family.
The order now includes Trump’s family attacks and extends to the family of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, aimed to prevent fear and intimidation in those involved in the trial proceedings.
Trump’s legal team plans to petition for Merchan’s removal from the case, citing newly uncovered evidence and altered circumstances.

Eko Hot Blog reports that the judge presiding over Donald Trump’s hush-money criminal trial on April 15 extended a gag order on Monday, forbidding the former president from targeting his family with hostility. This decision came shortly after Trump made false claims about his daughter on social media and verbally attacked her.

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Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan revised a ban, originally implemented a week ago, on Trump’s public statements regarding witnesses, jurors, and other case-related individuals. This came after the presumptive Republican nominee targeted Loren Merchan, a Democratic political consultant, in multiple posts on his Truth Social platform.

Trump retains the freedom to criticize Merchan and another significant figure in the case, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. However, the amended gag order now extends to the District Attorney’s family, shielding them from Trump’s rhetoric as well.

“This pattern of attacking family members of presiding jurists and attorneys assigned to his cases serves no legitimate purpose,” Merchan wrote. “It merely injects fear in those assigned or called to participate in the proceedings that not only they, but their family members as well, are ‘fair game,’ for Defendant’s vitriol.”

A violation could result in Trump being held in contempt of court, fined or even jailed.

Trump’s lawyer, Susan Necheles, declined comment. A spokesperson for the district attorney’s office also declined comment.

One of four criminal cases against Trump, the hush-money case focuses on accusations that he inaccurately classified payments to his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen as legal fees. These payments were actually for Cohen’s efforts to suppress negative stories about Trump during the 2016 campaign, which notably involved $130,000 paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to prevent her from disclosing a purported sexual encounter with Trump from years prior.

Last April, Trump entered a plea of not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records, a felony carrying a potential prison sentence of up to four years. However, a conviction does not guarantee jail time. Trump refutes allegations of a sexual encounter with Daniels and his legal team asserts that payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses, not part of any cover-up.

On Wednesday, following the issuance of the initial gag order, Trump sparked controversy by insinuating on Truth Social, without substantiation, that Judge Merchan’s rulings were influenced by his daughter’s political consulting activities. Additionally, Trump falsely claimed that she had shared a photo on social media depicting him behind bars.

Trump complained that the judge was “wrongfully attempting to deprive me of my First Amendment Right to speak out against the Weaponization of Law Enforcement” by Democratic rivals and that Loren Merchan “makes money by working to ‘Get Trump.’”

Trump’s posts put Merchan in an extraordinary position as a judge and a father. Just two weeks before jury selection in the historic first-ever criminal trial of a former president, Trump’s lawyers and prosecutors wrangled in a series of court filings over the bounds of the original gag order and whether Trump had overstepped them.

“It is no longer just a mere possibility or a reasonable likelihood that there exists a threat to the integrity of the judicial proceedings,” Merchan concluded Monday. “The threat is very real. Admonitions are not enough, nor is reliance on self-restraint.”

Trump’s social media posts placed Judge Merchan in a unique predicament, straddling his role as both a judge and a father. With jury selection looming just two weeks away for the unprecedented trial of a former president, Trump’s legal team and prosecutors engaged in a flurry of court filings, debating the limitations of the initial gag order and whether Trump had violated its terms and proceedings,” Merchan concluded Monday. “The threat is very real. Admonitions are not enough, nor is reliance on self-restraint.”

Merchan responded after prosecutors asked him Friday to “clarify or confirm” the scope of the gag order and to direct Trump to “immediately desist from attacks on family members.”

Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass implored Merchan to “make abundantly clear” to Trump that the gag order protects the judge’s family, Bragg’s family and the family members of all other individuals it covers. He urged Merchan to warn Trump “that his recent conduct is contumacious and direct him to immediately desist.”

Trump’s legal team contested both the original gag order and its expansion, arguing on constitutional grounds against further constraints on Trump’s speech, especially as he campaigns for president and defends himself against criminal charges.

On Monday, they announced plans to once again petition for Merchan’s removal from the case, indicating that they would file a formal request in the coming days for his recusal. They cited what they described as “altered circumstances and newly uncovered evidence” as the basis for their request.

Last year, Merchan declined the defense’s request to step down from the case when they initially raised concerns about his daughter’s consulting work and questioned his $35 donations to Democratic causes during the 2020 campaign, including $15 to Biden.

Merchan stated that a state court ethics panel had determined that his daughter’s work did not affect his impartiality. In September, he reaffirmed his confidence in his ability to remain fair and impartial, asserting that Trump’s legal team had not provided substantial evidence to warrant his recusal.

The initial gag order, issued last Tuesday, prohibited Trump from personally making or instructing others to make public statements regarding jurors or potential witnesses in the hush-money trial, including figures like his former lawyer Michael Cohen and porn star Stormy Daniels.

Similar to the order in Trump’s Washington, D.C., election interference case, it also forbids any statements intended to interfere with or harass the court’s staff, prosecution team, or their families. These restrictions remain in place, alongside the newly introduced prohibition on comments concerning the families of Merchan and Bragg.

The order, similar to the one in Trump’s Washington, D.C., election interference criminal case, also bars any statements intended to interfere with or harass the court’s staff, prosecution team, or their families. These prohibitions remain in effect, alongside the newly established ban on comments regarding the families of Merchan and Bragg.