Trump tests limits of gag order with post insulting potential witnesses in criminal trial
- On his Truth Social platform, Trump called his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen and porn star Stormy Daniels ‘sleaze bags who have ... cost our Country dearly!’
- Former US president was barred last month by Judge Juan Merchan from making public statements about probable witnesses in his coming hush money trial
Days after a New York judge expanded a gag order on Donald Trump to curtail “inflammatory” speech, the former president tested its limits by disparaging two key witnesses in his coming criminal hush money trial as liars.
In an order first made in March, and then revised on April 1, Judge Juan Merchan barred Trump from making public statements about probable trial witnesses “concerning their potential participation in the investigation or in this criminal proceeding”.
Merchan’s order did not give specific examples of what types of statements about witnesses were banned. He noted the order was not intended to prevent the former president from responding to political attacks.
The gag order also barred Trump from making public statements of any type about jurors, court staff, lawyers in the case or relatives of prosecutors or of the judge. Trump is allowed to make critical comments about the judge himself and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
It was unclear whether the judge might consider Trump’s criticism of Cohen and Daniels a violation of the gag order.
The payment, Cohen says, was intended to keep Daniels from talking publicly about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump that the Republican says never happened.