'Reprehensible rhetoric': Manhattan DA urges judge to expand Trump’s gag order

01 April 2024

Exactly two weeks before the start of Donald Trump's New York hush money trial, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is sounding the alarm following the ex-president's repeated attacks on presiding New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan and his daughter.

According to Just Security's Adam Klasfeld, "The Manhattan DA tells the judge that Trump's 'dangerous, violent, and reprehensible rhetoric fundamentally threatens the integrity of these proceedings,' in a new filing urging him to expand the gag order."

Bragg's request comes after his office submitted a letter to the court Friday, March 28 — two days after Merchan's original gag order was imposed — following Trump's second Truth Social attack on the judge's daughter, using her name.

The former president wrote:

Judge Juan Merchan is totally compromised, and should be removed from this TRUMP Non-Case immediately. His Daughter, Loren, is a Rabid Trump Hater, who has admitted to having conversations with her father about me, and yet he gagged me. She works for Crooked Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Adam 'Shifty' Schiff, and other Radical Leftists who Campaign on 'Getting Trump,' and fundraise off the 'Biden Indictments' - including this Witch Hunt, which her father 'presides' over.

The partial gag order Merchan issued to Trump last week was imposed to prevent the former president from attacking witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and their families.

After the MAGA hopeful shared a New York Post article that included photos of the pair on Saturday, March 30, legal experts responded on social media by demanding a tightened gag order.

Bragg's request reads:

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. The People accordingly submit this memorandum in further support of our March 28 request that the Court (1) clarify or confirm that its March 26, 2024 Order Restricting Extrajudicial Statements protects family members of the Court, the District Attorney, and all other individuals mentioned in the Order; and (2) warn defendant that his recent conduct is contumacious and direct that defendant immediately desist from attacks on family members.

To the extent that the original March 26 Order did not already prohibit this behavior, this Court can and should clarify or extend the Order to protect family members of the Court on the record described below, and should warn defendant that any future disregard of the Order will result in sanctions under Judiciary Law.

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