Trump judge lifts gag order allowing convicted former president to attack witnesses and jurors

Donald Trump is free to speak out against witnesses and jurors in a secret money trial after the judge presiding over the case agreed to roll back protections designed to protect them from his attacks.

The narrowly worded gag order was intended to address “serious concerns” about the integrity of the trial being compromised by the convicted former president, who has repeatedly attacked those implicated in the case and fueled abuse and harassment of judges, prosecutors and their families.

“But circumstances have changed,” New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan wrote Tuesday.

A jury found Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with an election interference scheme that involved buying the silence of adult film star Stormy Daniels.

After reaching the verdict and dismissing the jury, without objections from Manhattan prosecutors, the judge agreed to lift part of the silence order intended to protect trial witnesses such as Daniels and his former lawyer Michael Cohen.

The judge also eliminated jury protections, although he said his “strong desire” was to keep them in place.

The protections for court personnel, district attorney’s office employees and their families will remain in place until Trump’s sentencing on July 11.

Trump’s legal team has repeatedly called on the courts to lift the entire speech ban. His communications director, Steven Cheung, called the judge’s latest decision “illegal” and “grossly un-American” for leaving protections in place ahead of Thursday’s presidential debate.

“President Trump and his legal team will immediately challenge today’s unconstitutional executive order,” he said. Independent.

Daniels said she had “nothing but respect for Judge Merchan” and that his decision to restrict Trump’s speech was “extraordinary but clearly justified given the defendant’s uncontrolled, daily rants.”

“We also defer the judge’s post-trial review of this restriction in the context of free speech and any continuing threats to the judicial process,” she added.

Cohen said lifting the speech ban likely won’t have any impact on how Trump talks about him.

“For the last (six) years, Donald and his acolytes have continually made negative comments about me,” he said. “The Donald’s failed strategy of discrediting me to avoid accountability didn’t work then and won’t work now.”

On Friday, District Attorney Alvin Bragg said his office had agreed to amend the silence order to lift restrictions on trial witnesses. However, he said there was “no basis” to allow Trump to attack lawyers and court employees and their families.

According to law enforcement, Trump repeatedly used his Truth Social account to rage against the case, witnesses, the judge and prosecutors, fueling harassment and threats against lawyers, court staff and their families.

New York Police Department investigators have recorded dozens of “actionable threats” against the district attorney, his family and staff since Trump’s indictment, including 56 in April, May and June of this year, according to court documents.

Tump was fined $10,000 for 10 statements in violation of a silence order during the trial, and Judge Merchan threatened him with prison if he continued to violate the terms of the order.

“The scale of such a decision was not lost on me,” he told Trump last month.

“But at the end of the day, I have a job to do, and part of that job is protecting the dignity of the justice system,” he said. “Your continued violations… threaten to pervert the administration of justice and constitute a direct attack on the rule of law.”

Last week, New York’s highest appeals court rejected Trump’s request for a quick appeal of a court ruling that rejected his claims that the gag order violated his First Amendment rights.

The New York Court of Appeals ruling said his dissent “does not directly raise any substantive constitutional issues.”

The former president remains under a gag order in his federal election interference case and was fined $15,000 for violating a gag order in his civil fraud trial.

A Trump-appointed federal judge presiding over a Florida case involving classified documents is also weighing whether to rein in Trump’s attacks on law enforcement.