Donald Trump’s Truth Social account still includes week-old posts that wrongly criticize his secret judge’s daughter — despite a hush order banning such statements.
Both messages, from March 27, remained on Trump’s list as of Wednesday morning.
In both cases, Trump claims that the daughter of New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan’s political advisor had posted an illustration of Trump in prison on her X account.
A court official said in a press release last week that the X account Trump was referring to was a hoax account.
Last year, another New York judge, state Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, threatened Trump with “possible prison time” after a post violating the silence order during of his civil fraud trial has not been removed from the Republican Party frontrunner’s campaign website.
Trump’s lawyers explained that the gag-violating post, which attacked Engoron’s top lawyer by name and photo, inadvertently remained on the website.
Engoron ultimately fined Trump $5,000 for the gag violation instead of prison.
But he noted in a harsh ruling that “in today’s overheated climate, inflammatory untruths can, and in some cases have already led, to serious physical injury or worse.”
A spokesperson for the state court system declined to comment on posts attacking Merchan’s daughter remaining on Trump’s Truth Social account.
Trump’s secret trial in New York – the first of four criminal cases to go to trial – remains on track for jury selection on April 15.
The charges allege that Trump falsified 34 business records to hide a hush-money payment he made to porn actress Stormy Daniels just 11 days before the 2016 election.
Trump faces between no prison time and four years in prison if convicted, although experts say prison time is unlikely.
A lawyer for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.
Loren Merchan, the judge’s daughter, runs Authentic Campaigns, a left-leaning political consulting firm based in Chicago, which has represented prominent Democrats such as Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Trump’s “Truths” claiming that Merchan “posted a photo of me behind bars” were published on March 27.
These messages did not violate the more limited silence order in force at the time, Justice Mercan ruled.
But on Monday, he cited those and other related messages from Trump to extend the silence order. The gag order now specifically prohibits statements against members of the family of Manhattan District Judge and Attorney Alvin Bragg.
On Tuesday, Trump’s lawyers, who are not covered by the silence order, continued to attack Loren Merchan in a court filing demanding the judge’s recusal.
As a left-wing political consultant, the daughter “makes money” from her father’s anti-Trump silencing decisions, defense claims.
Judge Merchan is expected to respond to the recusal request this week – Trump’s second in eight months.
Trump’s previous request for recusal, which the judge rejected in August, also denounced the fact that Loren Mercan’s political work created a conflict of interest for his father.
In objecting to the recusal Tuesday, Manhattan prosecutors noted that a state ethics panel concluded in August that there was no conflict.
“The independent political activities of a relative do not constitute a reasonable basis for questioning the impartiality of the judge,” prosecutors retorted, citing the ethics committee’s findings.
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