A judge in New York refused to delay Donald Trump’s trial for paying hush money. Trump wanted to delay the trial because he is fighting a rule that stops him from talking about the case. But the judge quickly said no.
Judge Cynthia Kern’s decision was the second time in two days that the state’s appeals court said no to delaying the trial, which is supposed to start next week. This makes it even harder for Trump’s legal team to postpone the trial like they wanted to.
Trump’s lawyers asked to postpone the trial so that a larger group of judges could decide whether he should be allowed to talk publicly about the people involved in the hush-money case.
They say that the rule to not speak publicly is against the law and stops the likely Republican nominee from talking to the public while he is running for president and dealing with criminal charges.
“The damage caused by this gag order to the First Amendment cannot be fixed,” said Trump’s lawyer, Emil Bove, during a quick hearing on Tuesday at the state’s appeals court.
Bove said Trump should be allowed to speak freely, even though his former lawyer Michael Cohen and porn actor Stormy Daniels often criticize him. Both of them are important witnesses for the prosecution.
Bove said the order unfairly limits Trump’s ability to speak out about the case and share his views with the public. It also restricts the public’s right to hear from him.
Steven Wu, who is the head of appeals at the Manhattan district attorney’s office, argued that it is important to protect the fairness of the trial for the public.
“What we are discussing is that the defendant has a history of making hurtful comments about people involved in the case,” Wu said. This is not a discussion about politics. These are mean and hurtful words.
Wu said that some witnesses are afraid to testify because they don’t want their names in the news. Wu didn’t say who they are, but he mentioned that they are people who can talk about how records are kept.
The gag order allows Trump to talk about many different topics. He can also comment on Judge Juan M. Merchan and District Attorney Alvin Bragg can make political arguments when he wants to. Trump has criticized Bragg, who is a Democrat, and the judge many times.
If no more legal action happens, the process of choosing jurors will start on April 15th.
Last month, Merchan was told by prosecutors to not talk about a certain topic. Then, last week, he made the rule even stricter by saying no one can talk about his family. This happened because Trump said bad things on social media about the judge’s daughter, who works for the Democratic party, and said things that weren’t true.
On Tuesday, Trump’s lawyers had to go to court for the second day in a row. Judge Lizbeth González said no to their request to wait for the trial to be postponed while Trump tries to move his case out of Manhattan, where there are many Democratic people.
Trump’s lawyers made their request to limit speech look like a case against Merchan. In New York, people can take judges to court under Article 78 to question some of their decisions.
Before, Trump has tried this tactic when he wanted to delay his New York civil fraud trial but it didn’t work. He also did it when the judge told people involved in the trial not to talk about court workers. That request came after Trump criticized the judge’s main law assistant on social media.
One judge lifted the rule that stopped people from talking about the trial, but another group of judges put the rule back two weeks later.
Trump’s hush-money criminal case is about claims that he changed his company’s records to hide the payments he made to Cohen. Cohen helped Trump keep bad news out of the media during his 2016 campaign. Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about her affair with Trump.
Last year, Trump said he didn’t do the 34 crimes of lying about business records. He said he did not have sex with Daniels. His lawyers say that the money given to Cohen was used for legal expenses and was completely legal.
Trump has tried many times to delay the trial.
Last week, Merchan kept saying no to requests to delay the trial, and Trump asked the judge to leave the case again. The judge said no to a request that was the same in August.
Trump’s lawyers say the judge is not fair to him and has a problem because his daughter works for a company that helps Democrats, including President Joe Biden. Trump’s lawyers complained that the new gag order was protecting the Merchans from valid public criticism.
Merchan had been avoiding putting a restriction on talking. At Trump’s court appearance in April 2023, he warned Trump not to say things that could make people violent or unsafe, but didn’t completely silence him. At the next meeting, Merchan mentioned that Trump is a former president and current candidate. He said he is making extra effort to give Trump every chance to talk about his campaign.
Merchan started to worry more and more about Trump’s words causing problems during the important trial as it got closer. He said he had to make sure the trial was fair and honest, so he told everyone to stop talking about it. This was more important than people’s right to free speech.
Trump responded on social media that he thought the gag order was illegal and against American laws. He said Merchan was trying to stop him from speaking out against Democratic rivals using the law enforcement system for their own purposes.
Trump said something about Merchan without proof. He suggested that Merchan made decisions based on his daughter’s job and claimed that Merchan posted a photo of Trump behind bars on social media. But court officials said that the claim was not true.
After the outburst, Merchan made the gag order bigger on April 1. Trump can’t talk about the judge’s family or Bragg’s family.
“Trump said, ‘Why can they talk about me but I can’t talk about them. ‘ on his Truth Social platform. “