Former President Donald Trump may have found a "loophole" in the gag order imposed by Judge Juan Merchan in the Stormy Daniels hush money trial, warned former federal prosecutor Shanlon Wu.
Wu told Newsweek he believes the gag order should require Trump to not speak about jurors at all, only allowing him to say he is innocent and will defend himself in court.
Jury selection is underway for the criminal trial in which Trump is accused of falsifying business documents to hide a payment made to adult film actress Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign. Trump denies all charges, as well as the claim he had an affair with Daniels.
He has accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of targeting him for political purposes, claiming the charges constitute election interference. Throughout the first week of the trial, prosecutors have raised concerns about Trump potentially violating a gag order imposed by Merchan.
The order bars Trump from making public statements about the witnesses in the case, the staff or family members of the judge or district attorney's office, or about prospective jurors. Trump is, however, allowed to make comments about Bragg and Merchan.
Wu, a legal analyst who served as counsel to former Attorney General Janet Reno, sounded the alarms about a potential loophole in the gag order in a post to X, formerly known as Twitter.
"I think there is a loophole in Judge Merchan's order that Trump is using by posting/reposting a comment someone else made. Judge Merchan should close that loophole by making the gag order more of a Will Smith style 'keep my jurors out of your mouth,'" he wrote.
He referred to a post made by the former president on Truth Social, in which he shared a quote from Fox News' Jesse Watters. The post reads: "'They are catching undercover Liberal Activists lying to the Judge in order to get on the Trump Jury,' Jesse Watters."
It has sparked calls for Judge Merchan to tighten the gag order.
"Just [because] he [Trump] wants to campaign on his criminal trial doesn't mean he must be allowed to do so given importance protecting people and integrity of trial," Wu said.
He added there is "little downside" to a broad gag order because even if an appeals court finds it to be too broad, it would not affect the outcome of the trial.
Newsweek reached out to Merchan through the New York Court's public information office for comment via email.
During an interview on MSNBC, legal analyst Harry Litman also said there should be consequences for Trump if he violates the gag order, "though it might have to do with amending the gag order moving forward."
"Trump himself is, at best, mischievous, and at worst, motivated to kind of break the rules," he said. "He was the chaos president, he is now the chaos defendant. And this is just the first thing that happens this week. If we have a series of stumbles and problems of this nature, the whole trial becomes incumbered with doubts about public credibility."
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Andrew Stanton is a Newsweek weekend reporter based in Maine. His role is reporting on U.S. politics and social issues. ... Read more
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