Court upholds gag order on Trump after conviction for payments to conceal damaging information

A New York appeals court on Thursday denied Donald Trump’s request for remove the gag order in the criminal case accusing him of paying to conceal damaging information, rejecting the former Republican president’s argument that his conviction, issued in May, “constitutes a change of circumstances” that justifies lifting the restrictions.

A five-judge panel of the state’s intermediate appeals court ruled that the judge presiding over the trial, Juan M. Merchan, was correct in extending parts of the gag order. until Trump is sentencedwriting that “the just administration of justice necessarily includes sentencing.”

The decision came a day after Trump’s lawyers attempted to file papers asking the appeals court to immediately lift the gag order. Because a decision was imminent, the court rejected the filing, which called the restrictions an “unconstitutional and election-interfering” obstacle to Trump’s freedom of speech.

In a copy of the eventual presentation of documents provided to The Associated PressTrump’s lawyers wrote that the addition of Vice President Kamala Harris to the presidential race gives the issue new urgency, as she casts herself as a former prosecutor taking on a “convicted felon.”

“It is unconscionable that Harris can speak freely about this case, but President Trump cannot,” wrote Todd Blanche, Trump’s lawyer.

Blanche declined to comment on Thursday’s decision.

Merchan imposed the gag order in March, just weeks before the trial began, when prosecutors raised concerns about Trump’s habit of attacking people connected to his cases. During the trial, she held Trump in contempt and fined him $10,000 for violations, threatening to jail him if he did it again.

The judge lifted some of the restrictions in June, giving Trump freedom to comment about witnesses and jurors but not including prosecutors, court employees and family members — including his own daughter — until he is sentenced.

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