Donald Trump (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell), Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Defense attorneys for Donald Trump are once again opposing a gag order after the Manhattan district attorney cited the former president’s “ominous language and violent rhetoric” towards Stormy Daniels hush-money prosecutors in Truth Social posts as examples of the defendant’s “long history” of “inflammatory remarks.”
In a Monday filing, Trump’s lawyers Todd Blanche and Susan Necheles replied to Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s (D) request for a “narrowly tailored” gag order by repackaging arguments they attempted unsuccessfully in other cases, asserting that such a gag would violate the First Amendment rights of Americans to “hear President Trump’s uncensored voice on all issues that relate to this case,” namely a 34-count felony indictment for allegedly falsifying business records.
“President Trump’s political opponents have, and will continue to, attack him based on this case,” the lawyers told New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, reiterating that voters have a “right to listen” to the presidential candidate’s “unfettered responses to those attacks — not just one side of that debate.”
Last week, Bragg urged the trial judge to order up safeguards against Trump’s “extensive history of attacking jurors in other proceedings,” keeping jurors’ names limited to the parties and attorneys in the case — while limiting jurors’ personal and business addresses to attorneys. Relatedly, the DA requested a gag order to curb Trump’s “long history of making public and inflammatory remarks,” which Bragg maintained “pose a significant and imminent threat to the orderly administration of this criminal proceeding and a substantial likelihood of causing material prejudice.”
Bragg pointed out that Trump’s First Amendment arguments against his Jan. 6 federal case gag order did not succeed, so he proposed restrictions mirroring the ones imposed in that case. There, the parties and lawyers were barred from “making or directing others to make public statements about—(1) counsel in the case other than the Special Counsel, (2) members of the court’s staff and counsel’s staffs, or (3) the family members of any counsel or staff member—if those statements are made with the intent to materially interfere with, or to cause others to materially interfere with, counsel’s or staff’s work in this criminal case, or with the knowledge that such interference is highly likely to result.”
In support of his request, Bragg included the following Trump social media posts:
• “THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!” Id. at 50.
• “IT’S TIME!!! . . . WE JUST CAN’T ALLOW THIS ANYMORE. THEY’RE KILLING OUR NATION AS WE SIT BACK AND WATCH. WE MUST SAVE AMERICA! PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!” Id. at 58.
• “REMEMBER, THE SAME ANIMALS AND THUGS THAT WOULD DO THIS TO PERHAPS 200 MILLION PEOPLE, BUT ACTUALLY ALL AMERICANS, ARE THE COMMUNISTS, MARXISTS, RINOS, AND LOSERS THAT ARE PURPOSEFULLY DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY!” Id. at 51.
• “EVERYBODY KNOWS I’M 100% INNOCENT, INCLUDING BRAGG, BUT HE DOESN’T CARE. HE IS JUST CARRYING OUT THE PLANS OF THE RADICAL LEFT LUNATICS. OUR COUNTRY IS BEING DESTROYED, AS THEY TELL US TO BE PEACEFUL!” Id. at 52.
• “District Attorney Bragg is a danger to our Country, and should be removed immediately . . . .” Id. at 53.
• “What kind of person can charge another person . . . with a Crime, when it is known by all that NO Crime has been committed, & also known that potential death & destruction in such a false charge could be catastrophic for our Country? Why and who would do such a thing? Only a degenerate psychopath that truely [sic] hates the USA!” Id. at 54.
• “We must stop them cold!” Id. at 46.
As of early Tuesday, Merchan had not yet ruled on the gag order request.
The court docket shows that trial is set to begin on March 25, positioning Bragg’s prosecution as the first of Trump’s four criminal cases to reach the starting line.
Colin Kalmbacher contributed to this report.
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