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Manhattan DA wants Trump gagged even more in light of posts

homesafetytechpros — Mon, 01 Apr 2024 21:46:00 +0000

Alvin Bragg (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II), Donald Trump (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Monday asked a New York City judge to expand and enforce a previously issued gag order in former President Donald Trump’s upcoming hush money trial.

In an 8-page motion, the district attorney’s office once again implored New York Supreme Court Justice Juan M. Merchan to issue guidance on who, exactly, is covered by the order and to warn the defendant over a series of recent online social media posts.

“Defendant’s dangerous, violent, and reprehensible rhetoric fundamentally threatens the integrity of these proceedings and is intended to intimidate witnesses and trial participants alike — including this Court,” Bragg and his office wrote in the Monday court filing.

On March 26, Merchan issued the order. On March 27, Trump used a Truth Social media post to criticize the judge, his daughter, and Bragg. On March 28, the 45th president made similar rhetorical jabs.

On March 29, Bragg’s office filed a letter categorizing the defendant’s posts targeting the judge’s daughter as “contumacious” and asking Merchan to “clarify or confirm that the Order protects family members of the Court.” Trump defense attorney Todd Blanche quickly fired back, arguing the state was trying to “expand” the order and that “there was nothing ‘contumacious’ about the social media posts.

By late Monday, the back-and-forth dueling continued, with Bragg’s office enlarging their argument and citing additional Truth Social media posts to show the defendant’s history with such language — and to argue that he is also targeting potential witnesses.

“After a series of statements from defendant that included threatening ‘death and destruction’ if he was indicted and posting a photo of himself wielding a baseball bat at the back of the District Attorney’s head — statements which required an extensive public safety response by multiple law enforcement agencies — this Court admonished defendant to refrain from statements likely to incite violence or civil unrest or which jeopardized the rule of law,” the district attorney’s motion reads.

More Law&Crime coverage: The Trump Docket: A forgotten legal battle is about to rear its ugly head

The state originally took note of those initial posts during Trump’s April 2023 arraignment and moved for a gag order then. The issue was dispensed with, however, with a promise from the defense that their client “could and would self-regulate,” according to Bragg.

“Defendant proved himself totally incapable of self-regulating, going so far as to refer to one potential trial witness last week as ‘death,”” the district attorney’s motion goes on — with a link to yet another Truth Social media post referring to his former fixer and attorney Michael Cohen and former Manhattan prosecutor Mark Pomerantz.

The state’s effort to expand the gag order also cites no fewer than eight Truth Social media posts and argues that Trump is focusing his ire on Merchan’s daughter due, in part, to her support for the Democratic Party. While the district attorney’s office calls this a “false claim,” Merchan’s daughter is, in fact, a Democratic Party-aligned consultant.

Bragg’s filing also references the confusion over an X (formerly Twitter) account that recently used an image of Trump behind bars as its profile picture — but which changed its profile picture after being identified and attacked by Trump. The defendant alleges that account belongs to Merchan’s daughter; the New York court system claims that account no longer belongs to her; the district attorney’s office claims the entire episode was “a fraudulent impersonation.”

“Defendant’s conduct since this Court issued the March 26 Order is all the record that is necessary to justify a further order making clear that the Court’s family is off-limits,” the state’s motion goes on.

In response to a defense request for a “full adversarial briefing” on the gag order expansion and sanctions request, the district attorney’s office says no such efforts are necessary because it’s not a close call.

“This issue is not complicated,” the district attorney’s motion argues. “Family members of trial participants must be strictly off-limits. Defendant’s insistence to the contrary bespeaks a dangerous sense of entitlement to instigate fear and even physical harm to the loved ones of those he sees in the courtroom. This Court should immediately make clear that defendant is prohibited from making or directing others to make public statements about family members of the Court, the District Attorney, and all other individuals mentioned in the Order.”

While the district attorney’s office repeatedly uses language to suggest the court can simply “clarify” the order already issued, the terms of the order do not purport to limit speech about the judge himself, his family, or Bragg. Conversely, the order explicitly does limit speech toward “members of the court’s staff” and Bragg’s staff as well as the “family members of any counsel or staff member.”

Likely anticipating objections to the language employed in the order, the district attorney’s motion also calls for an outright expansion.

“Defendant’s continued harassing and disruptive conduct thus demands clarification or expansion of this Court’s March 26 Order Restricting Extrajudicial Speech to protect the Court’s ability to administer this case; to protect this Court and the Court’s family from harm; and to show all witnesses, prospective jurors, and other trial participants that the judicial system stands ready to protect them too and to preserve the rule of law in the face of defendant’s extreme and deliberate provocations,” the state’s filing reads.

Trump’s defense attorneys, once again, quickly fired back their response to the state’s arguments for increased limits on their client’s speech.

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Manhattan DA and Trump lawyer go on offense over gag order

homesafetytechpros — Sat, 30 Mar 2024 19:07:02 +0000

Left: Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg. (Lev Radin/Sipa USA/Sipa via AP Images); Right: Former President Donald Trump (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Widely anticipated fallout from the limited gag order placed on former president Donald Trump in his New York City hush money case rained down quickly in a series of court filings on Friday.

On March 26, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan M. Merchan imposed a gag order on the 45th president that bars him from attacking witnesses, line prosecutors and staff, and jurors in the case.

The very next day, Trump used a Truth Social media post to criticize the judge, his daughter, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Another such post, using similar language, came the day after that.

“Judge Juan Merchan is totally compromised, and should be removed from this TRUMP Non-Case immediately,” the second post reads. “His Daughter, Loren, is a Rabid Trump Hater, who has admitted to having conversations with her father about me, and yet he gagged me.”

By Friday afternoon, Bragg’s office filed a pre-motion letter arguing that Trump had violated the terms of the court’s order.

More Law&Crime coverage: ‘Did the right thing’: Federal judge defends Trump’s hush-money trial gag order, warns of ‘greater number of threats’ since Jan. 6 and says America on road to ‘tyranny’

Earlier this month, Merchan decided he had seen enough pre-trial motions and issued an order requiring all parties to seek leave from the court, by way of a one-page letter, before filing additional motions.

Before issuing the gag order, the judge angrily reminded the defense of his those prior instructions to file a “one page pre motion letter” before attempting to file another motion in the case – warning Trump’s attorneys that failure to abide by the court’s rules could result in criminal contempt charges.

“The People believe that the March 26 Order is properly read to protect family members of the Court,” the state’s two-page letter reads. “But to avoid any doubt, 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.”

Bragg’s office cites Trump’s two posts criticizing Merchan and his daughter in footnotes and refers to them in the body as “social media posts targeting a family member of this Court.”

The letter penned by Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass clarifies why the judge issued the order in the first place by arguing that “potential trial witnesses and prospective jurors who are not currently the subject of defendant’s invective will likely fear having themselves and their family members be subject to similar attacks.”

Several such individuals, the district attorney’s office claims, have spoken to prosecutors and expressed fears for themselves and their families in the event they are called to testify against Trump.

“[T]his 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 state’s letter continues. “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 district attorney’s office recommends sanctions under Empire State law that call for a $1,000 fine and/or up to 30 days in jail.

Trump’s defense attorney Todd Blanche sharply rejected those claims in a two-page letter filed late Friday afternoon.

“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,”” the defense letter reads. “That the gag order has been publicly interpreted in the way that President Trump reads it further supports the defense position on the order’s meaning. As a result, there was nothing ‘contumacious’ about the social media posts cited.”

The defense insists the court “cannot” direct Trump “to do something” beyond what the gag order requires.

“To ‘clarify or confirm’ the meaning of the gag order in the way the People suggest would be to expand it,” the defense letter continues. “No expansion is appropriate.”

Trump’s reply also requests “a complete opportunity for full adversarial briefing” to delve into “the constitutional problems attendant with any additional improper restrictions on protected campaign speech,” among other things.

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