Donald Trump is free to speak out against witnesses and jurors in his hush money trial after the judge presiding over the case agreed to roll back protections intended to shield them from his attacks.
The narrowly tailored gag order was intended to address the “significant concerns” about the now-criminally convicted former president compromising the trial’s integrity, as he routinely lashed out at people involved in the case and fueled abuse and harassment aimed at judges, prosecutors and their families.
But “circumstances have now changed,” Justice New York Justice Juan Merchan wrote on Tuesday.
A jury found Trump guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records connected with an election interference scheme that involved buying the silence of adult film star Stormy Daniels.
With the verdict rendered and the jury discharged, and without opposition from Manhattan prosecutors, the judge agreed to lift a portion of the gag order intended to protect trial witnesses like Daniels and his former attorney Michael Cohen.
The judge also lifted protections for jurors, though he said it is his “strong preference” to keep them in place.
Protections for court staff, district attorney’s office staff and their families will remain in place until after Trump is sentenced on July 11.
Trump’s legal team has repeatedly called on courts to lift the entire gag order. His communications director Steven Cheung called the judge’s latest decision “unlawful” and “blatantly un-American” for leaving protections in place ahead of a presidential debate on Thursday.
“President Trump and his legal team will immediately challenge today’s unconstitutional order,” he told The Independent.
Daniels said she has “nothing but respect for Judge Merchan,” and his decision to restrict Trump’s speech was “extraordinary but clearly justified given the defendant’s uncontrollable daily rants.”
“We also defer to the Judge’s review of that restriction post-trial in the context of free speech and any continuing danger to the judicial process,” she added.
Cohen said the end of the gag order likely won’t have any impact on how Trump talks about him.
“For the past [six] years, Donald and acolytes have been making constant negative statements about me,” he said. “Donald’s failed strategy of discrediting me so that he can avoid accountability didn’t work then and won’t work now.”
In a filing on Friday, District Attorney Alvin Bragg said his office agreed that the gag order can be amended to lift the restrictions against trial witnesses. But there is “no basis whatsoever” to let Trump unleash attacks against attorneys and court staff and their families, he said.
Trump has repeatedly used his Truth Social account to rage against the case, witnesses, the judge and prosecutors, which have fueled harassing and threatening messages aimed at attorneys, court staff and their families, according to law enforcement.
New York City Police Department investigators logged dozens of “actionable threats” against the district attorney, his family and staff since Trump was indicted, including 56 that were made in April, May and June of this year, according to court filings.
Tump was fined $10,000 for 10 statements violating the gag order during the trial, and Judge Merchan threatened him with jail if he continued to violate the terms of the order.
“The magnitude of such a decision is not lost on me,” he told Trump last month.
“But at the end of the day I have a job to do, and part of that job is to protect the dignity of the justice system,” he said. “Your continued violations … threaten to interfere with the administration of justice, and constitute a direct attack on the rule of law.”
Last week, New York’s highest appeals court rejected Trump’s demand for a swift appeal of a court ruling that shot down his claims that that the gag order violates his First Amendment rights.
A decision from the New York Court of Appeals said that “no substantial constitutional question is directly involved” in his challenge.
The former president is still under a gag order in his federal election interference case, and he was fined $15,000 for violating the gag order in his civil fraud trial.
The Trump-appointed federal judge presiding over his classified documents case in Florida also is weighing whether to rein in Trump’s attacks against law enforcement.
