The Court of New York, in the United States, issued this Tuesday (26) a gag order that prohibits Donald Trump from speaking out about the criminal case involving former adult film actress Stormy Daniels, whose trial is scheduled to begin on the 15th.
As a result, Trump is prohibited from making public statements about witnesses, prosecutors, court officials or jurors in the case involving the falsification of business records to hide payments made to Stormy Daniels in 2016.
Prosecutors asked for the gag order saying the former president has “a long history of making public and inflammatory statements” about people involved in his legal cases.
According to the judge in the case, Juan Merchan, Trump’s previous comments about him and other people involved in the case, and also about the trial date, on April 15, contributed to him accepting the US Attorney’s Office’s request for a gag order. .
“His statements were threatening and inflammatory. (…) Such statements undoubtedly endanger an orderly administration of this court. (…) There is no doubt that the imminent risk of harm is paramount at this time,” Merchant wrote , referring to some of Trump’s past attacks on witnesses, prosecutors and judges in various legal cases he faces, including this one.
In a statement, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung called the gag order unconstitutional. The former president’s lawyers previously said a gag order would leave him defenseless against attacks from political opponents over the case.
“American voters have a fundamental right to hear the uncensored voice of the leading candidate for the nation’s highest office,” Cheung said.
Republican presidential candidate in this year’s elections, Trump faces four criminal charges against him. Their tactic has been to try to postpone all trials so that they only take place after the presidential elections, on November 5th.
It is worth remembering that Trump’s defense also requested repeated postponements of the trial for this case, but only managed to postpone the start date to April 15th.
The Stormy Daniels case made Trump the first former president in US history to face a criminal trial.
