Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has requested a gag order on former President Donald Trump in anticipation of the trial related to hush money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. The District Attorney’s office filed a court document on Monday arguing that Trump’s history of making inflammatory remarks about participants in legal proceedings, including jurors, witnesses, lawyers, and court staff, poses a significant and imminent threat to the orderly administration of the criminal proceeding.
The filing highlighted Trump’s past public attacks on prosecutors, judges, and the judicial system, expressing concerns about the potential impact on the fairness of the trial. Trump has a track record of making public comments that could prejudice the legal process.
This is not the first time that gag orders have been considered for Trump. Similar measures have been imposed in his federal election interference case and his civil fraud trial in New York, where he directed personal attacks towards the judge, the judge’s wife, and the court’s clerk, even sharing personal information about the clerk on social media.
In the previous New York case, the court documented numerous threatening, harassing, disparaging, and antisemitic messages sent to Judge Arthur Engoron following Trump’s attacks. Trump’s misidentification of the judge’s wife on social media led to a barrage of harmful messages.
Trump “has a long history of making public and inflammatory remarks about the participants in various judicial proceedings against him, including jurors, witnesses, lawyers and court staff,” wrote the DA’s office in a court filing.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to the 34-count indictment in New York, which accuses him of falsifying business documents to conceal payments to Stormy Daniels, with whom he allegedly had an affair around the time of the birth of his youngest child. The trial is set to commence on March 25th, and Trump has already targeted Judge Juan Merchan and witnesses, including his former personal attorney Michael Cohen, with public criticism. The request for a gag order reflects the ongoing tension surrounding Trump’s legal battles and the potential impact of his public statements on the upcoming trial.
