Trump Indictments so Far

**bsm2** · 4 Weeks Ago

Poor Baby Trump

New York judge has imposed a gag order on Donald Trump, limiting the former president from making statements about potential witnesses in the criminal trial relating to hush money payments scheduled to begin next month.

Judge Juan Merchan also said that Trump can’t make statements about attorneys, court staff or the family members of prosecutors or lawyers intended to interfere with the case. Trump is also barred from making statements about any potential or actual juror.

The former president, Merchan wrote, has a history of making “threatening, inflammatory, denigrating” statements against people at all levels of the justice system, including jurors.

**bsm2** · 4 Weeks Ago

About time

Justice Juan Merchan, who is overseeing Trump’s upcoming hush-money trial in Manhattan, made it clear this week that he’s having none of it.

After firing a few warning shots across the Trump team’s bow, Merchan imposed a gag order on the former president on Tuesday, barring him from attacking any witnesses, jurors or prosecutors serving on the case.

Under the order, Trump cannot make, or direct others to make, statements about witnesses’ roles in the case. He is also barred from commenting on prosecutors, court staff and their relatives if he intends to interfere with their work on the case, or about the jurors in his case.

Merchan cited the “threatening, inflammatory, denigrating” statements Trump has made about grand jurors, prosecutors and others. To enforce such an order, judges typically impose fines and in extraordinary circumstances can send someone to jail.

The judge also ordered Todd Blanche, Trump’s pugnacious defense attorney, and his partners on the case to stop seeking to delay the trial by filing additional motions without first asking permission, warning there could be consequences.

“The court expects that the line between zealous advocacy and willful disregard of its orders will not be crossed,” he wrote.