A top court in New York has rejected a ploy from former President Donald Trump to undo a gag order that was imposed on him amid the criminal proceedings that recently culminated in a jury conviction on all counts in Manhattan. There’s still a pending challenge at the trial level to the limits on Trump. The specific court that just rejected Trump is the state’s highest.
The order, which was put in place by Justice Juan Merchan (the trial judge) at prosecutors’ urging, protects witnesses, jurors, and others involved in or connected to the case. Trump has characteristically raged against the restrictions, which mirror multiple other gag orders that he has faced in civil proceedings in state court there in New York and federal proceedings dealing with criminal allegations of conspiring against the 2020 presidential election’s outcome.
“New York’s highest court has dismissed Trump’s appeal of the gag order in the Manhattan case, declining to hear it because “no substantial constitutional question is directly involved.” In other words, convicted felon Donald Trump’s 1st Am rights aren’t violated by the order,” former federal prosecutor Joyce White Vance wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter) as news of the gag order developments spread.
Trump is heading towards sentencing in his New York City criminal case early next month, just before Republicans are still on track to make the ex-president their presidential nominee for the year yet again, no matter his various legal troubles.
The Biden campaign, which is preparing for an expected electoral rematch with Trump later this year, is seizing on Trump’s legal problems. “In the courtroom, we see Donald Trump for who he is,” says a new ad from Biden’s campaign. “He’s been convicted of 34 felonies. Found liable for sexual assault. And he committed financial fraud. […] This election is between a convicted criminal who’s only out for himself and a president who’s fighting for your family.” Biden and Trump also have a debate this month, their first of this election cycle.
