Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in New York hush-money criminal case

NEW YORK — Donald Trump on Wednesday lashed out at the New York judge who imposed a gag order on him ahead of his April 15 hush money trial, making a deceptive claim about his daughter and urging him to drop the case.

In a social media post, the former president suggested without evidence that Judge Juan M. Merchan represented his daughter’s interests as a Democratic political adviser. He also claimed — which was later dismissed by court officials — that she posted a photo on social media showing Trump behind bars.

Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, complained on his Truth Social platform that the gag order issued Tuesday was “illegal, un-American and unconstitutional.” He said Merchan, a veteran Manhattan lawyer, was “wrongfully trying to deprive me of my First Amendment right to speak out against the weaponization of law enforcement” by Democratic rivals.

Trump claimed that Merchan’s daughter, Loren Merchan, whose company has worked on campaigns for President Joe Biden and other Democrats, recently posted a photo on social media showing her “obvious goal” to see him jailed.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the New York state court system said the claim was false and that the social media account Trump referred to is no longer owned by Loren Merchan. It appears someone else took it over after she removed it about a year ago, court spokesman Al Baker said.

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,” Baker said.

Messages were left seeking comment for Loren Merchan and Trump’s campaign.

Trump did not link to the alleged photo, but an It was later changed to an image of Vice President Kamala Harris as a child.

Loren Merchan’s consulting firm had linked to that account in its social media posts in recent years, but it is now private with no posts showing and states that it joined the platform in April 2023, after Baker said they it had been removed. Usernames on X can be taken over by other users after deletion.

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 and potential witnesses in the hush money trial, such as his attorney who became arch-enemy Michael Cohen and porn star Stormy Daniels. . It also prohibits any statement intended to hinder or harass court staff, the prosecution team or their families.

It does not ban comments about Merchan or his family, nor does it prohibit criticism of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the elected Democrat whose office is prosecuting Trump.

Trump’s post insinuating that Loren Merchan had posted the photo came after conservative commentator Laura Loomer posted a story online on Tuesday claiming to have unearthed her X account.

“So let me make this clear,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, “the judge’s daughter is allowed to post pictures of her ‘dream’ of putting me in jail… but I am not allowed to talk about the attacks on me. , and the lunatics who are trying to destroy my life and prevent me from winning the 2024 presidential election, which I dominate?”

Bragg’s office declined to comment.

Trump’s three-part Truth Social post was his first response to the silence order. His focus on Merchan’s daughter echoed his lawyers’ arguments last year when they urged the judge to end the case. The judge had also made several small donations totaling $35 to Democratic causes during the 2020 campaign, including $15 to Biden.

Merchan said at the time that a state court ethics panel ruled that Loren Merchan’s work did not affect his impartiality. The judge said in a ruling last September that he was confident of his “ability to be fair and impartial” and that Trump’s lawyers had “failed to demonstrate that there are concrete, or even realistic, reasons to a refusal to be considered appropriate, let alone required on these grounds.”

In a recent interview, Merchan told The Associated Press that he and his staff were working hard to prepare for the historic first trial of a former president.

“There is no agenda here,” Merchan said. “We want to follow the law. We want justice to be done.”

Trump’s hush money case, which will be the first of his four criminal cases to go to trial, centers on allegations that he improperly recorded payments to Cohen as legal fees on his company’s books when they were intended for Cohen’s work during the 2016 campaign to cover up the case. negative stories about Trump. That included $130,000 that Cohen paid to Daniels on Trump’s behalf so that she would not publicize her claim about a sexual encounter with him years earlier.

Trump pleaded not guilty last April to 34 charges of falsifying corporate records, a crime punishable by up to four years in prison, although there is no guarantee a conviction would lead to prison time. He denies having sex with Daniels and his lawyers have said the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal fees and not part of any cover-up.

In issuing the gag order, Merchan cited Trump’s history of “threatening, inflammatory, derogatory” comments about people involved in his lawsuits. A violation could result in Trump being held in contempt of court, fined or even jailed.

Although Merchan was not under the restrictions, Merchan pointed to Trump’s various comments about him as an example of his rhetoric. The silence order mirrors one imposed and largely upheld by a federal appeals court in Trump’s criminal case in Washington, D.C., for election interference.

Trump’s lawyers fought against a gag order, warning that it would amount to an unconstitutional and unlawful prior restriction on his freedom of speech.

Merchan has long opposed its imposition, recognizing Trump’s “special” status as a former president and current candidate and not wanting to trample on his ability to publicly defend himself.

But, he said, as the trial approached, he discovered that his obligation to ensure the integrity of the case outweighed First Amendment concerns. He said Trump’s statements have created fear and necessitated additional security measures to protect his targets and investigate threats.