New York’s highest court has recently issued an order prohibiting former US president Donald Trump from making extrajudicial statements, that could potentially sway jurors and witnesses, in the lead up to his impending trial. This trial pertains to alleged hush money payments given to an adult film star.
Scheduled to begin on April 15, 2024, the trial will specifically focus on 34 counts of
business record falsification. This stems from suspected hush money payments that were purportedly made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, as an attempt to prevent her from disclosing the details of an alleged affair with Trump prior to the 2016 presidential elections.
Prosecutors claim that Trump, short before the 2016 election, directed attorney Michael Cohen to silence Daniels with a $130,000 payment. Trump then allegedly reimbursed Cohen through a series of checks and falsified business records to hide the arrangement. However, the narrative went public in January 2018 nonetheless, as it was reported by The Wall Street Journal.
On February 22, 2024, prosecutors pushed to limit Trump’s extrajudicial statements ahead of the trial, which Trump countered, asserting his need to communicate with the public in the light of the 2024 vote.
In their decision, the New York Supreme Court weighed Trump’s First Amendment right to freedom of speech against the necessity to maintain judicial integrity. The court sided with the prosecution, drawing attention to Trump’s history of inflammatory statements toward various individuals participating in legal proceedings against him, thus determining these actions posed a substantial threat to the orderly administration of justice.
The order restrains Trump from generating, or causing others to generate, public remarks concerning prospective witnesses, counsel (excluding the District Attorney), the court, and staff of the District Attorney and their family members, if such remarks could potentially disrupt their duties within this criminal case. Moreover, public comment on prospective or actual jurors has been curtailed.
This case is one among several currently standing against Trump in US courts, and is one of four pending criminal cases against the former president.
Previously, Trump was issued a gag order in his federal election interference criminal case, which he unsuccessfully contested in front of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. A gag order was also imposed on Trump in his New York civil fraud case, which was sustained by a state appeals court.