It has been noted that the attorneys for former President Donald Trump sent a letter to New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan and asked him to terminate the gag order on their client, arguing that the basis for it no longer existed because the trial was over and claiming that it had done “irreparable First Amendment harms” to him via Mediaite.
The former president was facing 34 felony counts for falsifying business records regarding alleged hush money payments to cover up extramarital affairs before the 2016 election. It has been noted that this was a historic first-ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president, and now historic first-ever criminal conviction of a former U.S. president, after the jury verdict — guilty on all 34 counts — was announced Thursday.
During the trial, the gag order imposed by Merchan was a major source of irritation for Trump, especially after he was found to have committed multiple violations, fined several thousand dollars, and warned future violations could very well land him behind bars. He regularly complained in his pre- and post-court rants to the media, as well as in posts on his Truth Social account, that the trial was an unfair “witch hunt” and “sham,” and that his First Amendment rights were being violated.
The trial is over and sentencing is set for July 11. Trump’s legal team are preparing an appeal and various post-trial motions, one of which was a letter to Merchan “requesting that Your Honor terminate the gag order restricting President Trump’s extrajudicial statements,” as reported by Law360 New York courts reporter Frank Runyeon.
