NEW YORK — Prosecutors in Manhattan suggested Friday that Donald Trump violated a gag order in his hush-money criminal case this week by attacking the judge’s daughter and making a false claim about her on social media.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office asked Judge Juan M. Merchan to “clarify or confirm” the scope of the gag order, which he issued Tuesday, and to order the former president and presumptive Republican nominee to “immediately to refrain from attacking family members. ”
In a letter to Merchan, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Steinglass argued that the ban on statements intended to hinder or harass court staff or their families leaves the judge’s daughter out of Trump’s rhetoric. He said Trump should be punished for further violations.
Trump’s lawyers argue that the district attorney’s office is misinterpreting the order and that it does not prohibit him from commenting on Loren Merchan, a political consultant whose firm has worked on campaigns for Trump’s rival Joe Biden and other Democrats.
“The Court cannot ‘order’ President Trump to do anything that the gag order does not require,” Trump’s attorneys Todd Blanche and Susan Necheles wrote. “To ‘clarify or confirm’ the meaning of the silence order in the way the People suggest would be to expand it.”
The trial, which concerns allegations that Trump falsified payment records in a scheme to cover up negative stories during his 2016 presidential campaign, is set to begin April 15. Trump denies wrongdoing and has pleaded not guilty to 34 charges of falsifying company records.
In his posts Wednesday on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote that Loren Merchan is “making money working on ‘Get Trump,’” and falsely accused her of posting a photo on social media showing him behind bars is.
A spokesperson for the New York state justice system said Trump’s claim was false and that the social media account Trump referred to no longer belonged to Loren Merchan.
The account on X, formerly known as Twitter, “is not associated with her email address, nor has she posted under that screen name since deleting the account. Rather, it represents the reconstruction, last April, and manipulation of an account she long ago abandoned,” said court spokesman Al Baker.
In the same Truth Social posts, Trump complained that his silence order was “illegal, un-American, unconstitutional.” He said Judge Merchan “wrongfully sought to deprive me of my First Amendment right to speak out against the weaponization of law enforcement” by Democratic rivals.
The silence order, which prosecutors requested, prohibits Trump from making public statements on his behalf or directing other people to make public statements on his behalf about jurors or potential witnesses in the hush money trial, such as his attorney who became arch-enemy Michael Cohen and porn star Stormy Daniels. .
The order, which mirrors one from Trump’s criminal case over election interference in Washington, D.C., also prohibits any statement intended to hinder or harass the court’s staff, the prosecution team, or their families. However, Trump is free to criticize Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the elected Democrat whose office is prosecuting Trump — but Steinglass also wants his family off limits.
In his letter, Steinglass implored the judge to make it “abundantly clear” to Trump that the silence order protects his family, Bragg’s family and family members of all other individuals covered by the silence order. He urged Merchan to warn Trump “that his recent behavior is offensive and order him to stop it immediately.”
A violation of the gag order could result in Trump being held in contempt of court, fined or even jailed.
Trump’s lawyers oppose such warnings, citing constitutional concerns about further restricting Trump’s speech as he campaigns for the presidency and fights criminal charges.