Trump gagged again

NEW YORK — Donald Trump has been gagged yet again.

The judge overseeing the former president’s upcoming Manhattan criminal trial on Tuesday imposed a gag order that bars him from attacking “reasonably foreseeable witnesses” or other people involved in the case, in which Trump is accused of falsifying business records connected to a hush money payment.

It’s the third case in recent months in which Trump has been restricted in what he can say publicly about the legal proceedings against him. The Manhattan case, with a start date of April 15, is set to be the first Trump criminal case to go to trial.

Justice Juan Merchan’s four-page order limits Trump — or others acting at Trump’s behest — in various ways. He is not allowed to comment publicly about witnesses or prospective jurors. He is also restricted from commenting about lawyers working on the case, court staff or their families, with one exception: The lead prosecutor, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, is not off limits.

Merchan wrote that Trump has used his public platform to make “threatening, inflammatory, denigrating” statements about various people linked to the case. Trump has even attacked the judge himself and one of his family members.

“Given that the eve of trial is upon us, it is without question that the imminency of the risk of harm is now paramount,” Merchan wrote.

Merchan noted, in a footnote, that just a day before the judge issued the gag order, Trump had publicly “targeted” a prosecutor working on the case, referring to him as a “radical left” prosecutor in a press conference following a court hearing to set the trial date.

A lawyer for Trump, Todd Blanche, declined to comment Tuesday on the gag order. A spokesman for the Trump campaign, Steven Cheung, called the order “unconstitutional,” saying it prevents Trump “from engaging in core political speech, which is entitled to the highest level of protection under the First Amendment.”

In late February, prosecutors from Bragg’s office sought the gag order, arguing that Trump’s pattern of attacks against people involved in cases against him creates “a reasonable likelihood of witness intimidation, juror interference, and harassment of other participants in this criminal proceeding.”

Bragg’s office said it largely modeled its request after restrictions upheld by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in December in the federal criminal case against Trump over his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

In addition to the order in the D.C. case, Trump was subject to a gag order in a recent civil fraud trial in New York state court after he posted a social media message disparaging the principal law clerk for the judge overseeing that trial. The judge subsequently found that Trump twice violated the gag order, fining him a total of $15,000.

Among other restrictions, Merchan’s order will deprive Trump of one of his favorite targets: Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and “fixer,” who is set to be a key witness at the trial.

For years, since Cohen publicly distanced himself from Trump, the former president has belittled and attacked him. When Cohen testified at the civil fraud trial, Trump called Cohen “a proven liar” and “totally discredited.”

Now, when Cohen testifies at the criminal trial, however, Trump must hold his tongue.