Donald Trump has lost one of two legal efforts to terminate a gag order imposed on the former president during his “hush-money” trial in New York on accounting fraud charges.
On Tuesday, New York’s state supreme court said it declined to hear Trump’s appeal against the gag order in the case involving Stormy Daniels that led to his conviction on 34 felonies, asserting that “no substantial constitutional question is directly involved”.
Trump’s lawyers had argued that the case presents “substantial constitutional questions of the highest importance”, in part because it includes no post-decision termination date.
“This gag order restricts President Trump’s core political speech on matters of central importance at the height of his presidential campaign … and thus it violates the fundamental right of every American voter to hear from … [a] candidate for president on matters of enormous public importance,” his attorneys wrote.
New York prosecutors opposed the appeal, urging the court to dismiss it, citing Trump’s “well-documented history of leveling threatening, inflammatory and denigrating remarks against trial participants”.
The gag order – imposed by the trial judge, Juan Merchan, after Trump lashed out at court staff and prosecutor’s witnesses, including his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen – remains in effect.
Trump is tentatively scheduled to be sentenced on 11 July.
Last week he sat for a half-hour, pre-sentencing video interview with a New York probation officer. After he was convicted, he said he would be “OK” with house arrest or jail, but warned “it’d be tough for the public to take,” adding: “At a certain point there’s a breaking point.”
During the trial, Trump was fined $10,000 for violating the gag order 10 times and threatened with incarceration if he continued. Trump’s legal team has also petitioned Merchan to end the gag order ahead of his sentencing. He now has 30 days to file a motion for leave to appeal Tuesday’s ruling.
Separately, Ohio Republican congressman Jim Jordan has threatened to call the New York attorney general, Letitia James, to House judiciary committee hearings into Trump’s prosecutions one day after the former president is scheduled to be sentenced.
In a letter to James last month, Jordan requested information about Matthew Colangelo, a former employee who worked on the prior civil state prosecution that found Trump liable for false property valuations and resulted in a $450m penalty for the former president.
Colangelo transferred to the Manhattan district attorney office that prosecuted Trump’s hush-money case. At that trial, Colangelo gave the opening arguments.
“Mr Colangelo’s recent employment history demonstrates his obsession with investigating a person rather than prosecuting a crime,” Jordan wrote in May.
The request to James asks for documents during Colangelo’s time in her office, including all communications he had with anyone from the Trump Organization or any associated entities, the Hill reported.
