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Trump loses bid to lift New York gag order in response to Harris’ campaigning
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Former President Donald Trump is still partly barred from speaking about his New York criminal trial after an appeals court decision denied his attempt to lift the gag order.
On Thursday, a New York appeals panel decided to uphold the remainder of the gag order, which bars Trump from speaking about prosecutors, court staff or their families. Trump’s lawyers had requested the gag order be lifted this time in order to campaign against Vice President Harris.
In the decision this week, the state’s appeals court said that since the criminal process is ongoing, the narrow gag order should still remain in place and that “threats received by District Attorney staff after the jury verdict continued to pose a significant and imminent threat.”
Trump has frequently sought to use the various judicial proceedings against him as a way to marshal donations and support from his followers in his campaign for president.
In a letter, Trump lawyer Todd Blanche said Harris has been campaigning as a “prosecutor vs. convicted felon” and that the gag order prohibits him from responding to the attack. In May, Trump became the first sitting or former U.S. president to be convicted on felony charges.
A jury found him guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in relation to payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential run.
At the start of the trial, New York Judge Juan Merchan imposed a gag order that barred Trump from speaking about witnesses, jurors, or court staff and prosecutors and their families. The gag order did not prohibit Trump from speaking about Merchan or Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Trump fought the gag order for months. Throughout the trial, he was fined several times — amounting to $10,000 — for violating the order.
Earlier this summer, after the conviction, Merchan lifted part of the order allowing Trump to speak about witnesses and jurors.
Trump is currently scheduled to be sentenced on September 18. The remainder of the gag order is set to be lifted after his sentencing.
Courtroom and campaign trail continue to blend together
In her first speech as a presidential candidate for the 2024 election, Harris didn’t miss the opportunity to bring up Trump’s legal woes.
“I took on perpetrators of all kinds — predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain,” she said to a crowd in Milwaukee, Wisc. “So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump's type.”
The former California attorney general and courtroom prosecutor told her campaign team that they can expect rhetoric from her that highlights her past roles.
Trump has spent his time on the campaign trail arguing, without evidence, that the trial and conviction was politically motivated against him. Speaking at rallies across the country, he has criticized Democratic judges like Merchan who have overseen his various lawsuits.
Several Republican allies have followed suit in accusing prosecutors of having political motivations.
On Thursday, House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, sent a letter to Lorena Merchan, Judge Merchan’s daughter, to turn over documents related to her role with the Harris Campaign, communication about the trial and the Biden campaign, and any related communications with her father.
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