A judge on Tuesday imposed a limited gag order on Donald Trump ahead of his criminal hush money trial in New York.
Trump’s statements about various figures involved in the case “were threatening, inflammatory [and] denigrating,” Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan said in a court order.
“Such inflammatory statements undoubtedly risk impeding the orderly administration of this Court,” Merchan ruled.
The gag order bars Trump from making public statements about likely witnesses and jurors in the case.
He must also refrain from speaking about lawyers in the case, court staff, employees in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office and their family members if those statements are made with the “intent to materially interfere” with the case.
Merchan’s order still allows Trump to speak out about Alvin Bragg, the district attorney prosecuting the former president on charges of falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
The gag order does not specifically bar Trump from criticizing the judge.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung in a statement to NBC News said the gag order prevents the presumptive Republican presidential nominee “from engaging in core political speech, which is entitled to the highest level of protection under the First Amendment.”
Merchan’s decision, which granted a Feb. 22 request by Bragg to restrict Trump’s speech about the case, came hours after Trump tore into the judge as a “Trump Hater” on social media.
Trump in multiple Truth Social posts called on Merchan to recuse himself from the case, and roped the judge’s daughter into his attacks by pointing to her work for a Democratic consulting firm.
The fusillade against Merchan came one day after the judge scheduled the trial to start April 15, rejecting a bid by Trump’s attorneys to delay it further.
Trump, who was in court when Merchan delivered that decision, said at a press conference afterward that he would be willing to testify in the trial.
Merchan’s…
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