Why 'Michael Cohen issue is a concern' in latest Trump gag request: legal expert

26 February 2024

With one month until trial for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's hush money case against Donald Trump begins, the New York prosecutor requested a "narrowly tailored" gag order, which would prohibit the ex-president "making or directing others to make public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses," counsel, court staff, family members of staff members and jurors.

CNN's Anderson Cooper spoke with CNN legal analyst Elie Honig and ex-Manhattan Chief Assistant District Attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo Monday about some implications regarding Bragg's request, noting that one "issue" with the protective order could be Trump's former "fixer," Michael Cohen.

"The gag order here is appropriately narrow," Honig emphasized. "Now, I'm no fan of gag orders. I was a prosecutor for 14 years. I never asked for a gag order, but I also never had a client or a defendant quite like Donald Trump, and he has a history. Any judge in deciding whether to issue a gag order like this has to weigh the defendant's First Amendment right. You do have a right to criticize prosecutors in the case against you with the need to safeguard the proceedings, especially jurors and witnesses, and that's really the focus of this gag order. So I think it's narrow enough that the judge can sign it without infringing on [Trump's] First Amendment right."

Cooper noted, "But Michael Cohen is going to be one of the witnesses in this," asking, "So Trump's not going to be able to say anything about Michael Cohen?"

Honig replied, "Exactly. I mean, Michael Cohen is well-known as a witness. Donald Trump and Michael Cohen both talk publicly about each other quite aggressively. If this gag order is signed, then yes, Trump would violate it if he made verbal public attacks on Michael Cohen."

Cooper then asked Agnifilo what she thinks.

"I think you bring up an excellent point that it's going to be a concern for the judge that this is all about protecting the jury pool," the criminal defense attorney said. "Because they're getting ready for trial, they're getting ready to send out jury questionnaires, and you need to protect the the information that gets to prospective jurors."

"So why didn't the DA for an anonymous jury that the identity of the jurors wouldn't be known?" the CNN host asked.

Agnifilo replied, "The law in New York state is different than the federal law and you're not actually allowed to have a completely anonymous jury to the defendant, so this particular request that they made, which is to keep the names and addresses from the public, but not from the defense team or the prosecution team, is actually along with New York law. But the Michael Cohen issue is a concern because if Michael Cohen continues to speak out about Donald Trump, Donald Trump will say he has a right to respond. So I could see the judge here, for example, issuing a gag order on all parties and all witnesses to protect the jury pool from getting extraneous, extra judicial statements and information now that we are weeks away from the trial."

Watch the video below or at this link.

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