By Kara Scannell, Lauren del Valle and Jeremy Herb | CNN
The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s criminal trial has expanded a recently imposed gag order to include members of the court’s family and members of the Manhattan district attorney’s family, according to a ruling issued Monday evening.
This comes after Trump made comments against the judge’s daughter in recent days.
Earlier Monday, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office asked the judge to expand the gag order to prevent the former president from attacking family members of those involved in the case.
“This Court should immediately clarify that the defendant is prohibited from making or directing others to make public statements about the court’s family members, the District Attorney, and any other persons mentioned in order,” prosecutors wrote in a motion to Judge Juan Merchan. Monday.
Last week, shortly after Merchan issued a gag order preventing Trump from making statements about witnesses, jurors, prosecutors, court staff or family members of prosecutors and court staff, Trump launched a series of posts on its social media platform. The silence order did not cover District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the judge or his family.
Trump said Merchan was “compromised” and he identified by name the judge’s daughter who works for a political consulting firm. Trump then cited posts about X from an account he said belonged to his daughter. A court spokesperson said the judge’s daughter deactivated her account two years ago and the messages did not come from her.
Trump argued that he had a right under the First Amendment to defend himself and engage in campaign speech.
“The accused knows what he is doing, and everyone else knows it too. And we all know exactly what the defendant’s intentions are because he has said for decades that it is part of his life philosophy to attack his perceived opponents ‘as viciously and violently’ as possible,” the lawyers wrote. prosecutors.
“But the suggestion that defendant is simply engaging in political counter-speech is an obvious fiction that this Court should categorically reject,” prosecutors wrote. “None of the defendants’ attacks over the past week amount to campaign advocacy. Instead, the defendant viciously and falsely defamed the court and his family member, for no other reason than that the court is presiding over this criminal trial.
Trump could appeal the silence
Trump’s lawyers oppose any extension of the hush order, which they say already goes too far, and have indicated they may appeal the order issued by Merchan last week.
“The Court should reject the People’s invitations to extend the silence order, which already constitutes an unlawful prior restraint that unduly restricts the election advocacy of the presumptive Republican nominee and leading contender in the 2024 presidential election,” the attorneys wrote of Trump in an opposition filing Monday.
Trump’s defense team says the silence order, as it stands, does not apply to members of the judge’s or Bragg’s family, pointing to news reports interpreting the order to speak the same way that family members like Merchan’s daughter are fair targets for public criticism of Trump.
“Accordingly, because the ban on silence does not expressly apply to members of the court or district attorney’s family, and because the challenged social media posts were not intended to materially interfere with this procedure, President Trump did not violate the ban on silence and was not in contempt. a warning would be appropriate.
Trump’s lawyers also asked Merchan to allow them to file a recusal motion to remove the judge from the case, now just two weeks before the trial begins, “based on changed circumstances and newly discovered evidence “.
Mercan denied a similar recusal request from Trump last year.
This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.
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