Former President Donald Trump’s gag order in a New York City criminal case should remain in place as proceedings move forward following his recent conviction, legal experts Norm Eisen and Andrew Warren wrote in a new article for MSNBC.
Eisen is associated with the think tank/policy organization the Brookings Institution, while Warren has experience as a prosecutor. The gag order blocks comments from Trump about jurors, witnesses, and others amid the felony case, in which he was convicted on all counts of falsifying business records related to hush money from before the 2016 presidential election for a woman named Stormy Daniels. There has been concern circulating about members of the jury and others potentially facing threats and violence over their involvement.
After Trump’s recent conviction, the ex-president’s legal team began pushing for the gag order to be lifted, though Eisen and Warren point to both the already continuing proceedings and possibilities, even if slim, for the future, like a do-over of the trial. Trump also has three other criminal cases in which jury selection is still generally expected to happen eventually.
“Although the trial has concluded, the wider proceedings continue, as does the need to protect them,” wrote the duo. “Perhaps if Trump had not created the need for the gag order in the first place, then repeatedly violated it, his request would be more reasonable. But there is no need to accommodate a vindictive man who has shown he is willing to break the law as eagerly as he disregards the truth.”
Prosecutors are also opposing the Trump team’s push to ditch the gag order. It does not cover and has not covered comments from the ex-president about the judge and lead prosecutor, elected official Alvin Bragg — an opportunity for attack that Trump has already taken up time and again.
