A recently expanded silence order in Donald Trump’s New York silencing case has banned him since Monday from attacking members of his judge’s family — but that hasn’t stopped him from posting links that attacked the wife and daughter of the judge Wednesday evening.
Trump posted links from the website of far-right activist Laura Loomer, who has criticized New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan and two members of his family.
Loomer’s messages accused the judge’s family of “anti-Trump bias” because of his daughter’s consulting work on Democratic campaigns. Loomer also said that Merchan’s wife worked for New York Attorney General Letitia James, a claim that Business Insider could not confirm as of Wednesday evening.
Wednesday night’s post repeats Loomer’s false claim that Merchan’s daughter posted an illustration of Trump behind bars online. A spokesperson for the New York state court system said the illustration came from a hoax unrelated to Mercan’s daughter.
Trump’s silence order prohibits him from making statements about “family members of any attorney, staff, court or district attorney” if those statements are made with the intent to materially interfere with the case.
Before Wednesday evening, Trump had refrained from posting new messages online attacking members of the judge’s family.
But he failed to remove the March 27 “Truths” which specifically accused Merchan’s daughter of political bias. A similar ruling earned Trump a breach of silence last year from the Manhattan judge in his civil fraud case.
As of Wednesday evening, Merchan had not addressed Trump’s new posts on Loomer’s website or his failure to remove his March 27 posts.
A lawyer for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment on potential violations of the hush order.
Violations of a silence order are punishable under New York law by a contempt of court conviction, fines and even prison time.
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