Manhattan prosecutors want a New York judge to maintain key parts of a gag order against former President Donald Trump at least through his July 11 sentencing, saying the former president’s rhetoric is inspiring his supporters to threaten prosecutorial staff and their families.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg says state Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan doesn’t need to enforce a part of the order that covers trial witnesses. Proceedings ended May 30 with a guilty verdict against Mr. Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records.
But Mr. Bragg’s office thinks the order should stay in place to protect jurors, court and prosecutorial staff and their families.
“As defendant’s continued conduct makes clear, the need to protect participants in this criminal proceeding and the integrity of the criminal justice process from defendant’s attacks remains critically important,” prosecutors wrote Friday in response to Mr. Trump’s motion to lift the gag order.
Prosecutors said they logged 56 “actionable threats” against Mr. Bragg’s family and staff at the district attorney’s office from April to June, and that doesn’t include nearly 500 threatening emails and phone calls to the DA’s office since April.
“The recent threat activity directly connected to defendant’s dangerous rhetoric about this prosecution includes bomb threats at the homes of two people involved in this case on April 15, 2024 — the first day of trial,” prosecutors wrote. “It includes a threatening post disclosing the home address of a [DA office] employee involved in this prosecution. It includes an online post depicting sniper sights on people involved in this case or a family member of such a person.”
While the motion centers on threats by Trump supporters, prosecutors pointed to the former president’s previous violations of the gag order — he was fined $10,000 — and his “singular history of inflammatory and threatening public statements.”
The former president and his lawyers say the gag order is unconstitutional and particularly egregious, given Mr. Trump’s status as the presumptive GOP presidential nominee. They say he should be free to speak freely in the critical months leading to the Nov. 5 election against President Biden.
Mr. Trump faces sentencing days before his party’s mid-July convention in Milwaukee. At trial, prosecutors successfully argued that he paid hush money to porn actress Stormy Daniels near the 2016 election and criminally concealed the payment through a series of fraudulent checks to his lawyer Michael Cohen in 2017.
Mr. Trump says the criminal cases and efforts to silence him are a Democratic plot to ruin his campaign and protect Mr. Biden.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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