Gag order triggers tirade by Trump
Ex-president assails judge’s daughter for social media photo
NEW YORK — 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 claimed was her posting of a social media photo showing him behind bars.
Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, complained 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 and urged him to step aside from the case.
The gag order, which prosecutors had requested, bars Trump from either making or directing other people to make public statements on his behalf about jurors and potential witnesses in the hush-money 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 wrote on his Truth Social platform. He argued that those circumstances make it “completely impossible for me to get a fair trial.”
Trump did not link to the purported photo, but an account under the name “LM” on X, formerly known as Twitter, showed a photo illustration of an imprisoned Trump as its profile picture Wednesday morning. It was later changed to an image of Vice President Kamala Harris as a child. Loren Merchan’s consulting firm had linked to that account in its social media posts in past years. The account is now private with no posts displayed. It says it joined the platform in April 2023, raising questions about whether it belongs to her or was taken over by someone else.
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.
“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?”
Trump’s three-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 exit the case. The judge 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, although 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 cover-up.
In issuing the gag order, Merchan cited Trump’s history of “threatening, inflammatory, denigrating” remarks about people involved in his legal cases. A violation could result in Trump being held in contempt of court, fined or even jailed.
Though not covered by the restrictions, Merchan referenced Trump’s various comments about him as an example of his rhetoric. The gag order mirrors one imposed and largely upheld by a federal appeals court panel in Trump’s District of Columbia election-interference criminal case.
Trump’s lawyers fought a gag order, saying it would amount to unconstitutional and unlawful prior restraint on his free-speech rights.
Merchan long resisted imposing one, recognizing Trump’s “special” status as a former president and current candidate and not wanting to hamper his ability to defend himself publicly. But as the trial nears, he said, he found that his obligation to ensuring the integrity of the case outweighs First Amendment concerns. He said Trump’s statements have induced fear and necessitated added security measures to protect his targets and investigate threats.