A A five-page judgment On Tuesday, Merchan acknowledged that “circumstances have changed” after the trial ended and the jury was dismissed. He said he reluctantly threw out the part of the gag order that applied to jurors and kept a March order that required their identities to remain private.
The gag order still applies to attorneys and prosecutors other than Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D); court staff and Prague staff; and the family of any of those persons.
“Until punishment is imposed, those people must continue to perform their legal duties without threats, intimidation, harassment and harm,” Merchan wrote.
A Trump campaign spokeswoman criticized Merson’s ruling as not ending the cake order entirely.
“This is yet another illegal decision by a highly conflicted judge that is blatantly un-American about President Trump, the front-runner in the 2024 presidential election, during Thursday’s upcoming presidential debate,” said spokesman Steven Cheung. Report. “President Trump and his legal team will immediately challenge today’s unconstitutional order.”
In the first debate of the 2024 election, Trump is set to debate President Biden on CNN on Thursday.
Trump’s sentencing was announced on July 11, four days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. Each count carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison, although Trump may serve little or no time.
Trump has long fought the gag order, publicly criticizing it as a violation of his First Amendment rights and receiving thousands of dollars in fines for violating it. Trump has been particularly critical of two high-profile witnesses in the trial: Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress at the center of the hush money scheme, and Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer.
Days after the May 30 ruling, Trump’s lawyers sought to lift the gag order entirely, which prosecutors opposed. Last week, the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, Refused to consider Trump’s appeal of gag order
At Tuesday’s conclusion, Merchan expressed lingering concerns about the jurors, saying there was “sufficient evidence to justify continued concern.” The March Order He previously banned jurors’ identities from being made public, allowing only the parties and their attorneys to access them.
