Kane Republican

Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in New York hush-money criminal case

- By Michael R. Sisak

Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order ahead of his April 15 hush-money criminal trial, suggesting without evidence that the veteran jurist was kowtowing to his daughter's interests as a Democratic political consultant. The former president objected in particular to what he said was her specious social media photo showing him behind bars.

Trump, the presumptiv­e Republican nominee, posted on social media that the gag order issued Tuesday was "illegal, un-american, unconstitu­tional." He said Judge Juan M. Merchan was "wrongfully attempting to deprive me of my First Amendment Right to speak out against the Weaponizat­ion of Law Enforcemen­t" by Democratic rivals.

The gag order, which was requested by the prosecutio­n, bars Trump from either making or directing other people to make public statements on his behalf about jurors and potential witnesses in the hushmoney trial, such as his lawyer turned nemesis Michael Cohen and porn star Stormy Daniels. It also prohibits any statements meant to interfere with or harass the court's staff, prosecutio­n team or their families.

It does not bar comments about Merchan or his family, nor does it prohibit criticism of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the elected Democrat whose office is prosecutin­g Trump.

Merchan's daughter, whose firm has worked on campaigns for President Joe Biden and other Democrats, "makes money by working to 'Get Trump'" and recently posted a fake photo on social media depicting her "obvious goal" of seeing him behind bars, Trump said. He argued those circumstan­ces make it "completely impossible for me to get a fair trial."

Trump did not link to the purported photo, but an account appearing to belong to Loren Merchan on X, formerly known as Twitter, showed a photo illustrati­on of an imprisoned Trump as its profile picture Wednesday morning. It was later changed. Loren Merchan's consulting firm had linked to that same account in a previous social media post.

"So, let me get this straight," Trump wrote on Truth Social, "the Judge's daughter is allowed to post pictures of her 'dream' of putting me in jail ... but I am not allowed to talk about the attacks against me, and the Lunatics trying to destroy my life and prevent me from winning the 2024 Presidenti­al Election, which I am dominating?"

"Maybe the Judge is such a hater because his daughter makes money by working to 'Get Trump' and when he rules against me over and over again, he is making her company, and her, richer and richer," Trump continued. "How can this be allowed?"

Messages seeking comment were left with Merchan, his daughter, and a spokespers­on for New York's state court system. Bragg's office declined to comment.

Trump's two-part Truth Social post was his first reaction to the gag order. His focus on Merchan's daughter and her ties to Democratic politics echoed his lawyers' arguments last year when they urged the judge to step aside from the case. The judge had also made several small donations totaling $35 to Democratic causes during the 2020 campaign, including $15 to Biden.

Merchan said then that a state court ethics panel found that

Loren Merchan's work had no bearing on his impartiali­ty. The judge said in a ruling last September that he was certain of his "ability to be fair and impartial" and that Trump's lawyers had "failed to demonstrat­e that there exists concrete, or even realistic reasons for recusal to be appropriat­e, much less required on these grounds."

Trump's hush-money case, set to be the first of his four criminal cases to go to trial, centers on allegation­s that he falsely logged payments to Cohen as legal fees in his company's books when they were for Cohen's work during the 2016 campaign covering up negative stories about Trump. That included $130,000 Cohen paid Daniels on Trump's behalf so she wouldn't publicize her claim of a sexual encounter with him years earlier.

Trump pleaded not guilty last April to 34 counts of falsifying business records, a felony punishable by up to four years in prison, though there is no guarantee that a conviction would result in jail time. He denies having sex with Daniels and his lawyers have said that the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses, not part of any coverup.

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