Hush money judge tightens Trump’s gag order in new ruling
The New York judge presiding over Donald Trump’s hush money trial Monday night barred the former president from publicly attacking the justice's family members, court records show.
Justice Juan Merchan amended his gag order, issued last week, to include his own daughter at the behest of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the records show.
The New York Times, among the first to report the ruling, notes the amended gag order still allows Trump to speak out against the judge and the district attorney.
The ruling comes after a week of Trump attacking the judge's daughter on social media, raising concerns his rhetoric could end in violence.
Trump on Saturday displayed photos of the judge's daughter and posted her name publicly.
Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance saw the post and said, "You can't have a legal system with integrity & the ability to counteract you if you're a wannabe dictator."
"That's why Trump is trying to delegitimize [our] institutions," she added.
One former prosecutor said Trump's words could be considered stalking.
"In New York, it is a crime when a person intentionally," Catherine Christian, a onetime assistant district attorney said on MSNBC on March 29. "That's called stalking in the fourth degree."
Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records to silence an adult film ahead of the 2016 presidential election, as is contended by Bragg.
