A New York appeals court on Thursday denied former President Donald Trump’s attempt to dismiss the partial gag order against him in his criminal case.
Trump argued that the gag order was unnecessary and should be thrown out following his conviction in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a secret payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in the final days of the 2016 campaign.
A five-judge panel of the state Appellate Division, a mid-level appeals court, disagreed. He supported Judge Juan Merchan’s decision that the order should remain in effect until sentencing, which the judges called “a critical phase of the criminal process.”
Merchan lifted some of the gag order’s restrictions in June, freeing Trump to comment on witnesses who testified against him in the weeks-long trial, but kept part of the order that prohibited Trump from targeting court officials, individual prosecutors and “family members of any attorney, member of the staff, the Court or the District Attorney.”
Both the judge and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office prosecuted the case, were never subjects of the order, but Merchan expanded the restrictions to family members following Trump’s repeated criticism of the judge’s daughter and the prosecutor’s wife.
The appeals court ruling noted that it had rejected Trump’s earlier appeal of the gag order after finding that Merchan had “adequately weighed the petitioner’s First Amendment rights against the court’s historic commitment to ensuring the fair administration of justice in cases criminal proceedings, and the right of persons related or tangentially related to the criminal process to be free from threats, intimidation, harassment and harm”.
The judges noted that the prosecutor presented evidence showing that “threats received by the district attorney’s staff following the jury’s verdict continued to pose a significant and imminent threat,” and rejected arguments from Trump’s lawyers that the judge had violated the their right to freedom of expression.
“[S]Since the underlying criminal action remains pending, Judge Merchan did not act beyond the jurisdiction, maintaining narrowly tailored protections,” the decision he said.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said Merchan’s order was “blatantly anti-American.”
“President Trump continues to vigorously challenge Acting Judge Merchan’s decision to leave in place portions of the unconstitutional gag order, which is intended to prevent President Trump from speaking freely about Judge Merchan’s disqualifying conflicts,” he said in a statement.
The decision makes it likely that the order will remain in effect until September 18, when Trump is tentatively scheduled to be sentenced. Sentencing was originally scheduled for July 11, but Merchan postponed the date to consider arguments from Trump’s lawyers that the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity in a federal criminal case against their client should result in a new trial.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in the case. Merchan is expected to issue his decision on the immunity issue by September 6.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
