Donald Trump’s lawyers have asked a New York judge to lift the gag order which barred the former US president from commenting about witnesses, jurors and others tied to the criminal case that led to his conviction for falsifying records to cover up a potential sex scandal.
In a letter sent on Tuesday, Trump’s lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove asked Judge Juan M Merchan to end the order, arguing there is nothing to justify “continued restrictions on the First Amendment rights of President Trump” now the trial is over.
The lawyers said Trump is entitled to “unrestrained campaign advocacy” in light of President Joe Biden’s public comments about the verdict and continued public criticism of him by his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen and porn actor Stormy Daniels, both key prosecution witnesses.
They also contend the gag order must go away so he is free to fully address the case and his conviction with the first presidential debate scheduled for June 27.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office has declined to comment.
The gag order was issued on March 26, a few weeks before the start of the trial, after prosecutors raised concerns about the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s propensity to attack people involved in his cases.
The judge later expanded it to prohibit comments about his own family after Trump made social media posts attacking the judge’s daughter, a Democratic political consultant. Comments about Mr Merchan and district attorney Alvin Bragg are allowed, but the gag order bars statements about court staff and members of Mr Bragg’s prosecution team.
Trump was convicted Thursday of 34 counts of falsifying business records arising from what prosecutors said was an attempt to cover up a hush money payment to Ms Daniels just before the 2016 election. She claims she had a sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier, which he denies.
He is scheduled to be sentenced July 11.
Prosecutors had said they wanted the gag order to “protect the integrity of this criminal proceeding and avoid prejudice to the jury.”
In the order, the judge noted prosecutors had sought the restrictions “for the duration of the trial”. He did not specify when they would be lifted.
Mr Blanche said on Friday that it was his understanding the gag order would expire when the trial ended and that he would seek clarity, which he did on Tuesday.
“It’s a little bit of the theatre of the absurd at this point, right? Michael Cohen is no longer a witness in this trial,” he said. “The trial is over. The same thing with all the other witnesses. So, we’ll see. I don’t mean that in any way as being disrespectful of the judge and the process. I just want to be careful and understand when it no longer applies.”
Trump has continued to operate under the belief that he’s still muzzled, telling reporters on Friday at Trump Tower: “I’m under a gag order, nasty gag order.”
Referring to Mr Cohen, Trump said: “I’m not allowed to use his name because of the gag order” before slamming his former lawyer-turned-courtroom foe as “a sleazebag”.
During the trial, Mr Merchan held the former president in contempt of court, fined him 10,000 dollars for violating the gag order and threatened to put him in jail if he did it again.
