Donald Trump’s allies are doing their dirty work, tiptoeing around the gag order

U.S. senators and even the speaker of the House of Representatives trashed the trial just as prosecutors called their key witness, former Trump fixer Michael Cohen.

This raises the question of whether the “surrogates” might violate Trump’s silence order.

Legal experts told Business Insider that depends on whether Trump orders them to speak – but warned that gagging uninvolved parties could raise free speech concerns.

For now, Trump’s friends seem free to attack the trial — as long as Trump doesn’t tell them.

Allies rally alongside Trump

Trump’s fleet of surrogates includes House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senators JD Vance of Ohio and Rick Scott of Florida, as well as former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

Some of the guests, including Vance and Gov. Doug Burgum, have been identified as official campaign representatives in other appearances, including on television, further blurring the line.

They “spoke very well,” Trump said, lambasting the witnesses and the daughter of Judge Juan Merchan.

On MSNBC, editor Andrew Rice said he saw Trump in court “annotating and editing” comments his surrogates were about to deliver.

A Trump campaign official told Business Insider that all supporters volunteered to come support their friend, and none were invited by the campaign.

Some have been transparent about their intentions. Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, who has been floated as a potential vice presidential pick, said Newsmax one of the reasons he was present was to “overcome this gag order.”

Tuberville’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.

Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado said Thursday that a group of Republicans from the far-right House Freedom Caucus were in Manhattan to “stand with” Trump. She then attacked Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer.

“He wants President Trump to suffer, that’s why he did what he did,” Boebert told reporters at a news conference in a park near the courthouse. “That’s why he told his lies, and we are here today to counter them by defending our friend President Donald J. Trump.”

Under the gag order, Trump is not allowed to comment on Cohen.

Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida later emphasized that the group was “here of our own free will because there are things we can say that President Trump is unfairly not allowed to say.”

Trump walks a fine line

Andrew Lieb, an attorney and legal analyst, said it was “difficult” to know whether Trump’s surrogates could cause new legal problems given the fine line between him leading or simply endorsing support.

“Contempt of the gag order is not a given, because contempt requires the judge to conclude that Trump is the one directing his surrogates,” Lieb explained, while warning: “Eventually, he will learn that if you keep touching the fire, you’ll end up getting burned.”

If Trump supporters suggest they were recruited to act on his behalf, “the court could hold a hearing to see whether Trump further violated the court order,” said Laurie Levenson, a law school professor. from Loyola.

She added that this could lead to further fines or even prison time.

But Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor, told BI that “as a practical matter,” Judge Merchan can do little to stop lawmakers from speaking on Trump’s behalf.

“Elected officials have the right to campaign and publicly discuss issues,” Rahmani said. “This is a free speech issue and a matter of public interest, which deserves the fullest protection of the First Amendment.”

Former Indiana Attorney General Jeff Modisett added that the scope of silence orders generally applies “only to parties directly involved in the case” and that courts have limited authority to impose them on – beyond this deadline.

A judge could consider extending silence to Trump surrogates if they were seen as threatening the integrity of the trial, he said, but such a decision “would have to be carefully justified and weighed against constitutional rights to freedom of expression and of the press.