In an attempt to postpone his trial on criminal charges related to hush money payments made to a porn star until April 15, 2019, Donald Trump filed an appeal of a gag order in the case, but a state appeals judge in New York denied his request on Tuesday.
The ruling was made by Associate Justice Cynthia Kern after a hearing at a mid-level appeals court on Tuesday morning.
Later, a full panel of appeals judges will review Trump’s fundamental objection to the gag order.
During the hearing, the attorneys for the Republican presidential candidate stated that the order that Justice Juan Merchan issued restricting his public comments ought to be modified so that he is able to respond to public criticism that has been leveled by potential witnesses in the case.
During the hearing, Trump’s lawyer, Emil Bove, stated, “The First Amendment harms arising from this gag order right now are irreparable.”
After discovering that Trump had made statements in a number of different legal cases that the judge referred to as “threatening, inflammatory, and “denigrating,” Merchan issued the order that prohibited him from making verbal attacks on potential witnesses, court staff, and individual prosecutors. The order was issued earlier this month.
Following the incident in which Trump made disparaging remarks about Merchan’s daughter on the internet, the judge extended the order to include his relatives as well as those of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
President Trump is not restricted in his ability to speak about Merchan or Bragg by the order.
While attending the hearing before the Appellate Division, Steven Wu, an attorney working for Bragg’s office, stated that the trial should not be postponed because Trump’s attorneys had the opportunity to file the appeal earlier.
Additionally, he stated that his office had to expand its security measures as a result of the statements made by Trump, and that potential witnesses were hesitant to testify as a result of Trump’s statements.
According to Wu, “they are aware of the potential consequences that their names in the press may lead to.” This is a pattern of inappropriate behavior that can have both predictable and terrible consequences.
Stormy Daniels, a porn star, was paid $130,000 by Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney, in exchange for her silence prior to the 2016 presidential election regarding a sexual encounter she claimed she had with Trump ten years earlier. Trump is accused of covering up this payment.
Donald Trump has entered a plea of not guilty to the 34 counts of falsifying business records, and he has denied having any such encounter with Stephanie Clifford, who is the real name of these allegations.
Trump’s last-ditch effort to delay the trial while he attempts to relocate the case out of Manhattan, which is a heavily Democratic district, was unsuccessful on Monday.
The results of a survey that his attorneys conducted among residents of Manhattan revealed that 61 percent of respondents believed that Trump was guilty, and 70 percent of respondents had a negative opinion of him.
The hush money case is one of four criminal indictments that Trump is facing as he prepares to defend himself against Democratic President Biden in the rematch of the election that will take place on November 5.
The others are a result of his efforts to reverse the results of the election that he lost to Biden in 2020 and his handling of sensitive government documents after he left the presidency in 2021. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him.