Donald Trump's Gag Order Sparks New Legal Battle

A new legal fight has emerged over the gag order handed to former President Donald Trump in his New York hush-money criminal case.

New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan earlier this week issued a limited order barring Trump from making statements about prosecutors, district attorney staff members, and potential witnesses and jurors in the case. However, the order did not specifically ban the former president from attacking Merchan, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg or their families.

Bragg's office on Friday sent Merchan a letter asking him to "clarify or confirm" who the order protects specifically and to "direct that defendant immediately desist from attacks on family members." The gag order was issued shortly after Trump attacked Merchan's daughter on social media, something that he repeated one day later.

Newsweek reached out for comment to the offices of Trump and Bragg via email on Friday.

"The People believe that the March 26 Order is properly read to protect family members of the Court," the letter from Bragg's office states. "This Court should now clarify or confirm that the Order protects family members of the Court, the District Attorney, and all other individuals mentioned in the Order. Such protection is amply warranted."

The letter goes on to argue that Trump had made "threatening and alarming remarks about family members of trial participants," resulting in "harms that those family members have suffered" and related fears that are "not hypothetical."

"This Court should make abundantly clear that the March 26 Order protects family
members of the Court, the District Attorney, and all other individuals mentioned in the Order," the letter concludes. "Furthermore, the Court should warn defendant that his recent conduct is contumacious and direct him to immediately desist. If defendant continues to disregard such orders, he should face sanctions."

The letter includes a footnote mentioning two Truth Social posts that Trump made earlier this week, both attacking Merchan and his daughter, whom the former president claimed "represents Crooked Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Adam 'Shifty' Schiff, and other Radical Liberals."

Trump lawyer Todd Blanche responded to the letter with a letter of his own, opposing the request and arguing that the court cannot "direct" Trump to refrain from attacking Bragg, Merchan or their family members because the gag order does not include any such restrictions.

"The express terms of the gag order do not apply in the manner claimed by the People, which they seem to acknowledge by suggesting the need to 'avoid any doubt,'" Blanche wrote. "That the gag order has been publicly interpreted in the way that [former] President Trump reads it further supports the defense position on the order's meaning."

"To 'clarify or confirm' the meaning of the gag order in the way the People suggest would be to expand it," he added. "No expansion is appropriate on the basis of a one-page letter citing only two cases, and where President Trump's response has been restricted to a single page required to be submitted the following day while President Trump and defense counsel are preparing for trial."

Bragg filed the first of four separate criminal indictments against Trump last year, charging him with 34 felonies for falsifying business records to conceal hush-money payments made to adult film actress Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, during his 2016 presidential campaign.

Trump pleaded not guilty to all of the charges in Bragg's indictment, as he has for all of the criminal charges he is currently facing, claiming that his legal woes are part of a political "witch hunt." The New York trial is scheduled to begin on April 15.