Published April 9, 2024
A New York appeals court judge on Tuesday permitted the full Appellate Division First Department to consider relaxing a sweeping gag order against former President Donald Trump.
The appellate court could reportedly decide to delay the criminal trial while it considers Trump’s gag order appeal.
Trump sued New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan in an appeals court on Monday to challenge the judge’s sweeping gag order. Merchan, who is presiding over the New York criminal case, imposed the gag order after news surfaced about a connection between Merchan’s daughter and conspiracy theorist Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA).
The gag order, as Breitbart News’s Nick Gilbertson reported, prevents Trump from making public comments about witnesses participating in the trial, counsel other than Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D), “members of the court’s staff and the District Attorney’s staff, or … the family members of any counsel or staff member, if those statements are made with the intent to materially interfere with … counsel’s or staff’s work” on the case. It also encompasses prospective jurors.
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SOURCE: www.breitbart.com
RELATED: Appeals court rejects Trump’s latest attempt to delay April 15 hush money criminal trial
FILE – Former President Donald Trump leaves Manhattan criminal court, Feb. 15, 2024, in New York.
Published April 9, 2024
A New York appeals court judge Tuesday rejected former President Donald Trump’s latest bid to delay his hush money criminal trial while he fights a gag order. Barring further court action, the ruling clears the way for jury selection to begin next week.
Justice Cynthia Kern’s ruling is yet another loss for Trump, who has tried repeatedly to get the trial postponed. Jury selection is set to start Monday.
Trump’s lawyers wanted the trial delayed until a full panel of appellate court judges could hear arguments on lifting or modifying a gag order that bans him from making public statements about jurors, witnesses and others connected to the hush-money case.
The presumptive Republican nominee’s lawyers argue the gag order is an unconstitutional curb on Trump’s free speech rights while he’s campaigning for president and fighting criminal charges.
“The First Amendment harms arising from this gag order right now are irreparable,” Trump lawyer Emil Bove said at an emergency hearing Tuesday in the state’s mid-level appeals court.
Bove argued that Trump shouldn’t be muzzled while critics, including his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen and porn actor Stormy Daniels, routinely assail him. Both are key prosecution witnesses.
