Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Monday filed a limited order against former President Donald Trump, who is indicted in New York on charges of falsifying business records related to hush money payments he made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. asked the judge to impose a gag order.
In their request, prosecutors cited what they called Trump's “long-standing and perhaps unique history” of attacking people he considered his opponents, including Trump's other criminal and civil cases. It also included people associated with the.
The trial in Trump's hush money case is scheduled to begin on March 25th.
Mr. Trump is already under a limited gag order in a federal election interference case in Washington, D.C., and prosecutors in Manhattan are under a similar “strictly tailored gag order restricting certain adverse extrajudicial statements by defendants.” They are calling for the imposition of an “instruction”.
The motion for a limited gag order on President Trump's public statements includes an affidavit from an NYPD sergeant. Nicholas Pistilli, Bragg's security chief, noticed an “abnormal spike” in threats against him after Trump began targeting him on social media.
The NYPD Threat Assessment and Protection Unit recorded 89 threats against district attorneys, their families, or office employees in 2023, the first of which came after President Trump posted on social media, “Protest! This happened on the same day that he posted “Take back our country!'' According to the report. In all of 2022, the unit recorded just one threat against Bragg, according to the filing.
In March 2023 alone, about 600 calls and emails were forwarded to police for investigation, according to the filing.
The filing also includes photos and screenshots of harassing messages, firearms and handwritten threats, which prosecutors said show the impact of Trump's social media posts and actions.
In a statement to ABC News, Trump campaign spokesman Stephen Chan rejected the request for a limited gag order, saying that if granted, it would “impair President Trump's First Amendment rights, including his ability to protect himself.” “It would impose an unconstitutional violation.” And the right for every American to hear from President Trump. ”
Manhattan prosecutors also asked the judge to allow the now-infamous 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape to be played to the jury. Prosecutors argued the tape was “highly relevant” to Trump's motives for paying hush money to Daniels to hush up allegations of an affair he had long denied.
Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo said, “Concerns about the release of the tapes and the resulting potential impact on the election are directly related to Stormy Daniels' compensation, which was executed just weeks later.” .
In their own filing, Trump's lawyers opposed the introduction of the “Access Hollywood” tape and other defense requests.
“Given the inherent prejudice and extremely limited probative value of the Access Hollywood recordings, the court should exclude evidence regarding the recordings at trial,” the defense filing argues, adding that playing the tapes was “inciting.” He said that it would be a “target”. that it provides limited value to jurors; “Documents and accounting practices will not be involved in this case,” he said.
Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 charges in the hush-money case and criticized witnesses including Bragg and Judge Juan Marchan, as well as Trump's former personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen.
”[Trump] “He has a long history of making inflammatory statements in public about participants in various judicial proceedings against him, including jurors, witnesses, attorneys, and court officials,” prosecutors said in their filing. He added that President Trump's comments “pose a grave and immediate threat to the nation.” Orderly management of this criminal proceeding. ”
In a series of motions filed Monday, prosecutors also asked the judge to bar the defense from presenting evidence or arguments about Cohen's credibility. Cohen was charged with perjury in October when he testified in Trump's civil fraud trial.
“Michael Cohen is a liar,” the defense argued in its filing. “He recently committed perjury on stage and under oath in a civil trial involving President Trump. If his public statements are any indication, he will perjure again in this criminal trial. intend.”
The judge in President Trump's civil fraud trial also imposed a limited gag order barring the former president from commenting on court officials.
In the hush-money case, Manhattan prosecutors are asking a judge to bar Mr. Trump from speaking publicly about witnesses, jurors, court officials or prosecutors other than Mr. Bragg.
“As other courts have found, these reasonable precautions are well justified by the defendant's past conduct and the risk that, if appropriate safeguards are not taken, the pending litigation will be adversely affected.” ” the prosecutor wrote. “The relief sought here is narrowly tailored to protect the integrity of future trials while affording defendants ample opportunity to participate in arguments, including arguments regarding this case.”
In their filing, defense attorneys asked Judge Marchand to block Daniels from being called as a witness, arguing that her testimony would only add unnecessary obscenity to the trial and would have little relevance. .
“Like Cohen, she is trying to tell a contrived story filled with sordid details about events she claims happened nearly 20 years ago, but that's not the case in a trial involving the types of charges at issue. has no place,” the defense attorney wrote.
They also sought to limit the introduction of Trump's past statements, including from his previous books, as evidence, saying their claims had little relevance and were confusing.
“Whatever President Trump's business management style may be, it is in no way proof of how he ran his businesses while president of the United States,” the lawyers wrote.
Meanwhile, prosecutors are also seeking a secrecy order that would prohibit the disclosure of juror names to anyone other than Trump and his lawyers.
Last April, President Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records related to hush money payments he made to Daniels in the days before the 2016 presidential election.
The former president has denied all wrongdoing.
