Former President Donald Trump has been accused of violating New York Judge Juan Merchan’s gag order two days before his Manhattan hush money trial is set to begin.
On Monday, Trump is set to become the first former president in United States history to stand trial in a criminal case. Following an investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, Trump was indicted in March 2023 on charges of falsifying business records relating to hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign. Daniels alleged that she had an affair with Trump in 2006, which he has denied.
Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee, has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has said the case is politically motivated against him.
On Saturday, Trump took to his social media platform Truth Social to rant about New York attorney Mark Pomerantz and his former lawyer turned critic Michael Cohen. Cohen is a star witness for Bragg in the upcoming trial.
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“Has Mark POMERANTZ been prosecuted for his terrible acts in and out of the D.A.’s Office. Has disgraced attorney and felon Michael Cohen been prosecuted for LYING? Only TRUMP people get prosecuted by this Judge and these thugs! A dark day for our Country. MAGA2024!!!” he wrote.
Newsweek reached out to Trump’s spokesperson via email for comment.
Pomerantz assisted then-Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. in an investigation into Trump’s business dealings until he resigned from the case in February 2022, citing frustrations with Bragg’s initial hesitance to pursue the hush money case against Trump. Bragg took over as Manhattan DA in January 2022.
Joyce Vance, a former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama under the Obama administration, posted side-by-side screenshots on Saturday of Trump’s Truth Social post and his gag order on X, formerly Twitter, and wrote: “There is a gag order that prohibits Trump from making public statements about witnesses concerning their participation at trial. Questioning their credibility would seem to cross that line.”
Responding to Trump’s post, Cohen wrote on X: “When does enough become enough and the petulant man child gets a time out in lockup for his bad behavior?”
Newsweek reached out to Cohen’s lawyer via email for comment, however, they were unable to comment due to the upcoming trial.
Cohen served prison time after pleading guilty to eight criminal counts in August 2018, including campaign finance violations related to an alleged hush money scheme involving adult film star Stormy Daniels.
In a separate case, he pleaded guilty in federal court in November 2018 to lying to Congress in relation to false statements he made to U.S. lawmakers about Trump’s reported business dealings with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign.
In March, Merchan imposed a gag order on Trump, barring him from making public statements about witnesses, including Cohen and Daniels, as well as lawyers and staff in the case and their families. The order excluded Merchan and Bragg. It was later expanded to include Merchan’s and Bragg’s families after Trump made blistering attacks toward the judge’s daughter, Loren Merchan.
“She works for Crooked Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff, and other Radical Leftists who Campaign on ‘Getting Trump,’ and fundraise off the ‘Biden Indictments’ – including this Witch Hunt, which her father ‘presides’ over, a TOTAL Conflict – and attacking Biden’s Political Opponent through the Courts. Former D.A. Cy Vance refused to bring this case, as did all Federal Agencies, including ‘Elections,'” the former president wrote last month.
Merchan’s daughter was the president and partner of progressive political consulting firm Authentic Campaigns, according to a June 2022 wedding announcement in Politico.
According to its website, Authentic Campaigns lists Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign, the Biden-Harris campaign and Democratic Representative Adam Schiff’s Super Political Action Committee (PAC) as clients.
Trump’s spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement when the gag order was expanded: “Judge Merchan’s unconstitutional Gag Order prevents President Trump—the leading candidate for President of the United States—from engaging in core political speech, which is entitled to the highest level of protection under the First Amendment.”
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