Former US president Donald Trump was on Tuesday issued a judge’s gag order barring him from publicly commenting about witnesses and court staff ahead of his April 15 criminal trial involving hush money paid to a porn star.
New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan granted a request by the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is prosecuting Trump, the Republican candidate to challenge US President Joe Biden for the White House.
“His statements were threatening, inflammatory, denigrating,” Merchan wrote, referring to some of Trump’s previous attacks on witnesses, prosecutors and judges in various legal cases he faces.
Photo: AP
“Such inflammatory extrajudicial statements undoubtedly risk impeding the orderly administration of this court,” the judge wrote.
Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to hide reimbursements to his former lawyer Michael Cohen for a US$130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels to buy her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she claimed to have had with Trump a decade earlier.
Trump denies having an encounter with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
In a statement, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung called the gag order unconstitutional.
“American voters have a fundamental right to hear the uncensored voice of the leading candidate for the highest office in the land,” Cheung said.
The order blocked Trump from speaking about witnesses concerning their role in the case. It also blocked him from commenting on court staff, prosecutors other than Bragg himself, and any of their family members if those comments are meant to interfere with the case.
The looming hush money trial is one of four criminal cases Trump is confronting ahead of the Nov. 5 US election. It could be the only one to reach trial before the election. He has pleaded not guilty to all and called them politically motivated.
Amid Trump’s mounting legal bills, he on Tuesday began asking supporters to buy “God Bless the USA Bible.”
“Happy Holy Week! Let’s Make America Pray Again. As we lead into Good Friday and Easter, I encourage you to get a copy of the God Bless the USA Bible,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, directing his supporters to a Web site selling the book for US$59.99.
“All Americans need a Bible in their home, and I have many. It’s my favorite book,” Trump said in a video posted on Truth Social. “I’m proud to endorse and encourage you to get this Bible. We must make America pray again.”
Billing itself as “the only Bible endorsed by President Trump,” the venture’s Web site calls it “easy-to-read” with “large print” and a “slim design” that “invites you to explore God’s Word anywhere, any time.”
Additional reporting by AP
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
RELEASE: The move follows Washington’s removal of Havana from its list of terrorism sponsors. Most of the inmates were arrested for taking part in anti-government protests Cuba has freed 127 prisoners, including opposition leader Jose Daniel Ferrer, in a landmark deal with departing US President Joe Biden that has led to emotional reunions across the communist island. Ferrer, 54, is the most high-profile of the prisoners that Cuba began freeing on Wednesday after Biden agreed to remove the country from Washington’s list of terrorism sponsors — part of an eleventh-hour bid to cement his legacy before handing power on Monday to US president-elect Donald Trump. “Thank God we have him home,” Nelva Ortega said of her husband, Ferrer, who has been in and out of prison for the
RSS