MUTED: Trump lawyers BATTLE to remove his gag order
The countdown has gone from months to weeks to days — and now it’s nearly down to hours — until Donald Trump sits in a courtroom for the first of his criminal cases to make it to trial.
Unless, of course, he finds a way to put it off further.
Trump’s current gambit is an appeal of the gag order that was imposed to keep the former president from attacking witnesses, jurors, attorneys and their families, and the judge’s family members, who are not involved with the case.
Trump says he’s being unfairly silenced, and forbidden to speak about legitimate concerns regarding the fairness of the case. The prosecution argues that this issue has been thoroughly litigated, with an ethics board agreeing that the judge’s daughter is allowed to have her own political views and activities and that allowing Trump to attack her would send a message to witnesses and jurors that they, too, could be targeted.
After recusal motions, claims that pretrial publicity would bias the case, and an effort to change venue have all failed, now it’s down to a battle over the gag order. ABC reports:
“The filings are sealed so how Trump’s attorneys plan to argue isn’t known, but they have previously complained the gag order hamstrings the presumptive Republican nominee in both his political campaign and his legal defense. The challenge is structured using an administrative petition against Judge Juan Merchan, who has barred Trump from attacking witnesses, prosecutors and court staff.”
In one of his civil cases, Trump appealed the gag order too, and while the gag was upheld, he did get a brief stay while the appellate panel considered it.
In this case, though, he’s days away from trial, and the appeals court just shot down one effort on Monday, with the prosecution arguing that the challenge was not brought in a timely manner.
Over the weekend, Trump declared that the judge was trying to put him “in the clink” for speaking what he calls the “obvious truth,” and said that he would be honored to serve prison time for defying the gag order.
Despite that claim, he has been moderately more cautious about these attacks, sharing news articles and video clips of others making false, unverified, or irrelevant claims about the judge’s daughter, instead of doing so in his own words.
Trump critics, on the other hand, point out that any other criminal defendant besides the former president would have long ago suffered the consequences of their behavior and would have already been cited for contempt of court.
Meanwhile, Trump’s criminal trial is still scheduled to begin on April 15th, when jury selection will begin — barring any other last-minute delays.
