Trump faces gag order in New York hush money criminal case

NEW YORK: Donald Trump on Tuesday was hit with a judge’s gag order sought by prosecutors in his upcoming criminal trial involving hush money paid to a porn star, restricting him from publicly commenting about witnesses and court staff.

Ahead of the former US president’s trial scheduled to begin on April 15 in the New York state court, Justice Juan Merchan granted a request for the order made last month by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office.

Merchan separately ruled on March 7 that jurors were to remain anonymous except to Trump, his lawyers, prosecutors and a handful of others, after prosecutors highlighted Trump’s history of publicly deriding trial jurors and grand jurors. The prosecution sought an order blocking Trump from “making or directing others to make” statements about witnesses concerning their role in the case, and from commenting on court staff and prosecutors other than Bragg himself.

Silencing Trump was necessary because of his “longstanding history of attacking witnesses, investigators, prosecutors, judges and others involved in legal proceedings against him,” prosecutors said.

It is one of four criminal cases confronting Trump, the Republican candidate challenging Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov 5 US election.