New York’s highest court has denied former President Donald Trump’s appeal of his trial gag order, leaving it in place for now.
Judge Juan Merchan issued a gag order earlier this year to prevent Trump from attacking witnesses, lawyers and others involved in the criminal trial. This may amount to an effort to influence the process.
A jury of 12 Manhattan residents found the former president guilty on May 30 on all 34 counts of first-degree falsification of business records.
President Trump is scheduled to appear at the sentencing hearing on July 11. This is just days before the Republican National Convention accepts the Republican presidential nomination.
He could potentially face jail time or probation.
The trial centered on $130,000 paid by Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, to porn actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Daniels said she once had a sexual encounter with Trump, which Trump denied. But even that accusation would have been detrimental to his campaign at the time.
During the seven weeks of trial, Trump was found to have violated the gag order 10 times, resulting in a $10,000 fine, $1,000 for each violation. Merchan expressed concern about the judge doing so, but he warned Trump that further violations would land him in prison.
Trump’s lawyers argued that the gag order presents “substantial constitutional issues” regarding his First Amendment right to speech. But the appeals court disagreed and refused to take up the issue “on the grounds that it does not directly involve substantive constitutional issues.”
Trump is not prohibited from attacking Merchan, and he has done so repeatedly on his Truth Social platform and in various speeches by claiming the judge is woefully biased against him.
