A New York appeals court on Tuesday upheld a speech censorship order against former President Trump., He asked the court to lift the ban on him speaking following his recent guilty verdict in an unprecedented criminal trial.
With the trial over and the former president and presumed 2024 Republican presidential candidate awaiting sentencing next month, experts say the gag order that Judge Juan Merquin refused to lift “lacks a persuasive basis.”
“A district judge in New York is effectively restricting what a presidential candidate can say in the months leading up to the election,” practicing attorney and law professor Jonathan Turley told Fox News Digital.
“There appears to be no compelling basis for the continuation of this censorship, particularly in light of the election,” he said.
New York appeals court rejects Trump’s request to lift gag order
Former President Trump arrives at Trump Tower in New York City on May 30, 2024, after being convicted of 34 counts of first-degree falsifying business records. (Felipe Ramares for Fox News Digital)
Turley noted that appeals courts are generally “very deferential” when it comes to courtroom administration issues such as the issuance and continuation of gag orders, but said he was “very concerned that Judge Marchan would continue the gag order even after the verdict had been returned and the jury had dismissed the case.”
“Apart from calling into question the value of the continued speech censorship order in this case, Judge Marchan ignores the countervailing costs to the political system,” Turley added.
The New York Court of Appeals on Tuesday Trump’s They called for the censorship order against him to be lifted, saying “substantial constitutional questions are not directly involved.”
Trump’s lawyers are weighing the November presidential election and the first debate with President Biden scheduled for later this month, as well as First Amendment Rights The arguments made by the former president and his supporters were cited as reasons for lifting the executive order.
Trump lawyers ask for gag order lifted on store owner after trial, before presidential debate
Judge Juan Merchan is seen during former President Trump’s criminal trial in New York City on May 29, 2024. (Reuters/Jane Rosenberg)
The former president Was found guilty Last week, President Trump was found guilty of all 34 counts of first-degree falsifying business records. The six-week trial stemmed from charges brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. President Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, just days before the Republican National Convention.
Judge Marchan issued a gag order to Trump before the trial began, prohibiting him from making any public statements or directing others to speak about the potential involvement of witnesses, any attorneys in the case other than Bragg, or any court officials, district attorney’s office employees, or their family members.
John Thew, a constitutional lawyer who served in both the Bush and previous administrations, noted that some of New York’s most prominent defendants are not subject to the same kind of speech censorship as the 45th president.
Trump says guilty verdict leaves ‘scar’ on New York justice system, vows to ‘keep fighting’
Former President Trump is due to appear in Manhattan Criminal Court on May 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig/Pool)
“The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has prosecuted all manner of high-profile criminal defendants in the past, from celebrities to mobsters like La Commission head Lucky Luciano, but they have not been silenced like former President Trump was,” Shue said.
“Neither did John Gotti, the former boss of the Gambino crime family and known as the ‘Teflon Don,'” he said, though this was a federal trial.
“Say what you want about Donald Trump, he’s not the mafia,” Schue added.
“The trial is over. There is no possibility that Judge Marchan will set aside the sentence and grant a new trial,” Hsu told Fox News Digital. “The sentence and gag order will be heard as two separate appeals in the New York appellate system.”
Shu noted that Trump’s lawyers had filed an expedited appeal of the gag order, and said that typically “when a litigant asks the highest court in a jurisdiction to intervene and shorten the process, it is highly unusual for the Supreme Court to agree.”
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“President Trump and his legal team will continue to fight the unconstitutional speech censorship order imposed by Judge Marchan,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Chang said in a statement.
“This gag order unfairly silences President Trump, a leading candidate in the US presidential elections at a time when the election campaign is in full swing. The gag order only applies to President Trump, and not to his political opponents and critics, or even the unscrupulous Joe Biden,” Chang wrote.
“The election interference gag order violates the First Amendment rights of President Trump and every American voter who has a fundamental right to hear his message,” he added.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Marchan and Bragg’s offices for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
