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
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